1
00:00:21,500 --> 00:00:23,766
Well, I wanted to
name him after his dad,

2
00:00:23,866 --> 00:00:26,666
Denton Winslow Crocker.

3
00:00:26,766 --> 00:00:30,400
So that was the name
we chose.

4
00:00:30,500 --> 00:00:32,766
He was a colicky little baby.

5
00:00:32,866 --> 00:00:36,766
And, uh, so we were up
night and day with him.

6
00:00:36,866 --> 00:00:40,133
And my husband was
a wonderful dad

7
00:00:40,233 --> 00:00:42,400
and very loving and attentive.

8
00:00:42,500 --> 00:00:44,366
He'd walk the floor with him.

9
00:00:44,466 --> 00:00:48,266
And then he said one day,
"He's a regular little mogul

10
00:00:48,366 --> 00:00:51,400
the way he rules our lives."

11
00:00:51,500 --> 00:00:53,700
So that's where the name
came from.

12
00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:55,266
We called him Mogie.

13
00:00:55,366 --> 00:00:59,966
Mogie Crocker was born
June 3, 1947,

14
00:01:00,066 --> 00:01:02,433
the oldest of four children.

15
00:01:02,533 --> 00:01:04,333
His father was
a biology teacher,

16
00:01:04,433 --> 00:01:07,566
and Mogie was raised
in college towns:

17
00:01:07,666 --> 00:01:11,966
Ithaca, Amherst, and finally
Saratoga Springs,

18
00:01:12,066 --> 00:01:16,766
to which the family moved
in 1960, when he was 13.

19
00:01:16,866 --> 00:01:20,733
My mother read books
to all of us.

20
00:01:20,833 --> 00:01:23,066
My brother was
definitely the one

21
00:01:23,166 --> 00:01:25,833
who probably gravitated
towards them more than I did.

22
00:01:25,933 --> 00:01:28,033
He really feasted on books.

23
00:01:28,133 --> 00:01:30,866
Mogie was an unusual boy.

24
00:01:30,966 --> 00:01:34,333
Intelligent, independent-minded,
and too nearsighted

25
00:01:34,433 --> 00:01:36,466
to do well at team sports,

26
00:01:36,566 --> 00:01:40,433
he loved books about American
history and American heroes.

27
00:01:40,533 --> 00:01:42,866
At 12, he started a diary

28
00:01:42,966 --> 00:01:46,100
in which he kept track
of Cold War events.

29
00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:48,466
"I hate Reds!" he wrote,

30
00:01:48,566 --> 00:01:51,233
and he admired most those
who had proved willing

31
00:01:51,333 --> 00:01:55,166
to sacrifice themselves
for a cause.

32
00:01:55,266 --> 00:01:58,166
President John F. Kennedy's
call for every American

33
00:01:58,266 --> 00:02:01,966
to ask what he or she could do
for their country

34
00:02:02,066 --> 00:02:06,633
had mirrored ideas he'd held
since he was a small boy.

35
00:02:06,733 --> 00:02:09,733
One evening when
I was reading to Denton

36
00:02:09,833 --> 00:02:15,633
before he went to sleep,
I chose a passage fromHenry V,

37
00:02:15,733 --> 00:02:21,000
which is, "He today that sheds
his blood with me

38
00:02:21,100 --> 00:02:23,233
"shall be my brother.

39
00:02:23,333 --> 00:02:28,166
"And gentlemen in England
now a-bed

40
00:02:28,266 --> 00:02:30,766
"shall think themselves
accurs'd

41
00:02:30,866 --> 00:02:35,000
"they were not here and hold
their manhood cheap

42
00:02:35,100 --> 00:02:40,000
while any speaks that fought
with us upon St. Crispin's Day."

43
00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:44,766
♪ If another war comes...

44
00:02:44,866 --> 00:02:47,200
I think that it was
that sort of thing

45
00:02:47,300 --> 00:02:49,166
that made Denton want to be

46
00:02:49,266 --> 00:02:54,800
part of something important
and brave.

47
00:02:54,900 --> 00:02:57,900
♪ With God on their side.

48
00:03:11,033 --> 00:03:13,666
I just stayed awake last night
thinking about this thing.

49
00:03:13,766 --> 00:03:17,366
The more I think of it,
I don't know what in the hell...

50
00:03:17,466 --> 00:03:19,766
it looks like to me we're
getting into another Korea.

51
00:03:19,866 --> 00:03:21,566
It just worries
the hell out of me.

52
00:03:21,666 --> 00:03:24,233
I don't see what we can ever
hope to get out of there with

53
00:03:24,333 --> 00:03:25,500
once we're committed.

54
00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:27,633
I don't think it's worth
fighting for

55
00:03:27,733 --> 00:03:29,166
and I don't think
we can get out.

56
00:03:29,266 --> 00:03:30,833
And it's just the biggest
damn mess I ever saw.

57
00:03:30,933 --> 00:03:32,466
McGEORGE BUNDY:
It is, it's an awful mess.

58
00:03:32,566 --> 00:03:35,400
I just thought about ordering
those kids in there,

59
00:03:35,500 --> 00:03:37,133
and what in the hell am I
ordering them out there for?

60
00:03:37,233 --> 00:03:38,600
One thing that
has occurred to me...

61
00:03:38,700 --> 00:03:40,100
What the hell
is Vietnam worth to me?

62
00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:41,833
What is it worth
to this country?

63
00:03:41,933 --> 00:03:43,300
Yeah, yeah.

64
00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:45,533
Now, of course, if you start
running the communists,

65
00:03:45,633 --> 00:03:47,533
they may just chase you right
into your own kitchen.

66
00:03:47,633 --> 00:03:50,233
Yeah. That's the trouble.

67
00:03:50,333 --> 00:03:53,200
And that is what the rest of
that half of the world

68
00:03:53,300 --> 00:03:56,733
is going to think if this thing
comes apart on us.

69
00:03:56,833 --> 00:03:58,266
It's damned easy
to get in a war,

70
00:03:58,366 --> 00:04:00,000
but it's going to be awfully
hard to ever extricate yourself

71
00:04:00,100 --> 00:04:01,133
if you get in.

72
00:04:01,233 --> 00:04:02,600
It's very easy...

73
00:04:02,700 --> 00:04:04,133
I'd like to hear Walter and
McNamara to evaluate this thing.

74
00:04:04,233 --> 00:04:05,166
To debate it?

75
00:04:05,266 --> 00:04:06,533
Yeah.

76
00:04:06,633 --> 00:04:08,300
All right,
what's a possible time...?

77
00:04:10,033 --> 00:04:13,100
Tragedy had brought Lyndon
Johnson to the presidency

78
00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,333
in November of 1963.

79
00:04:16,433 --> 00:04:19,100
And he would not feel himself
fully in charge

80
00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:23,100
until he had faced the voters
the following year.

81
00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:26,566
But his ambitions for his
country were as great

82
00:04:26,666 --> 00:04:29,966
as those of his hero,
Franklin Roosevelt.

83
00:04:30,066 --> 00:04:32,033
During his years
in the White House,

84
00:04:32,133 --> 00:04:34,333
he would lead the struggle
to win passage

85
00:04:34,433 --> 00:04:38,500
of more than 200 important
pieces of legislation—

86
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:44,066
the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
the Voting Rights Act of 1965,

87
00:04:44,166 --> 00:04:48,533
federal aid to education,
Head Start, Medicare,

88
00:04:48,633 --> 00:04:51,833
and a whole series of bills
aimed at ending poverty

89
00:04:51,933 --> 00:04:54,966
in America,
all intended to create

90
00:04:55,066 --> 00:04:57,866
what he called
"The Great Society."

91
00:04:57,966 --> 00:05:02,633
In foreign affairs,
Johnson was less self-assured.

92
00:05:02,733 --> 00:05:04,900
"Foreigners are not like
the folks I'm used to,"

93
00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:06,600
he once said.

94
00:05:06,700 --> 00:05:09,300
To deal with them,
he retained in office

95
00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,100
all of John Kennedy's
top advisors—

96
00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:14,233
Dean Rusk at State,

97
00:05:14,333 --> 00:05:16,800
Robert McNamara at Defense,

98
00:05:16,900 --> 00:05:20,833
McGeorge Bundy as his
National Security Advisor.

99
00:05:20,933 --> 00:05:26,100
"I need you," he told them,
more than his predecessor had.

100
00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:27,900
Publicly, Johnson pledged

101
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,400
that "This nation will keep its
commitments

102
00:05:30,500 --> 00:05:33,566
from South Vietnam
to West Berlin."

103
00:05:33,666 --> 00:05:37,266
But privately,
Vietnam filled him with dread.

104
00:05:37,366 --> 00:05:39,733
"It's going to be
hell in a handbasket out there,"

105
00:05:39,833 --> 00:05:42,533
his ambassador told him.

106
00:05:42,633 --> 00:05:45,833
"I want the South Vietnamese
to get off their butts

107
00:05:45,933 --> 00:05:47,600
"and get out into those jungles

108
00:05:47,700 --> 00:05:51,900
and whip the hell out of some
communists," the president said.

109
00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,700
"And then I want 'em
to leave me alone,

110
00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:56,866
"because I've got some
bigger things to do

111
00:05:56,966 --> 00:05:59,000
right here at home."

112
00:06:00,833 --> 00:06:04,033
Johnson had opposed the military
coup that had overthrown

113
00:06:04,133 --> 00:06:08,300
and murdered South Vietnamese
president Ngo Dinh Diem,

114
00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:11,866
fearing it would make
a bad situation worse.

115
00:06:13,566 --> 00:06:15,166
It had.

116
00:06:19,466 --> 00:06:24,133
The National Liberation Front—
the Viet Cong—

117
00:06:24,233 --> 00:06:27,300
was making coordinated attacks
throughout the countryside,

118
00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:30,833
some 400 of them
in just two weeks.

119
00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:58,566
An estimated 40% of the South
Vietnamese countryside,

120
00:06:58,666 --> 00:07:01,200
and more than 50%
of the people,

121
00:07:01,300 --> 00:07:05,133
were effectively
in the hands of the Viet Cong.

122
00:07:05,233 --> 00:07:08,966
And the Vietnamese generals who
had overthrown Ngo Dinh Diem

123
00:07:09,066 --> 00:07:12,666
were bickering among themselves.

124
00:07:12,766 --> 00:07:15,800
The assassination of Ngo
Dinh Diem set in motion

125
00:07:15,900 --> 00:07:17,833
a series of coups.

126
00:07:17,933 --> 00:07:22,166
Each government was less
effective than the one before.

127
00:07:22,266 --> 00:07:25,666
In January 1964,

128
00:07:25,766 --> 00:07:27,300
with U.S. encouragement,

129
00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:32,066
General Nguyen Khanh
staged yet another coup.

130
00:07:32,166 --> 00:07:36,800
In March, Johnson sent McNamara
to Vietnam with instructions

131
00:07:36,900 --> 00:07:40,233
to show the people that Khanh
was "our boy."

132
00:07:42,133 --> 00:07:45,500
Johnson said, "Let's get him out
and get him speaking to people,

133
00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:49,166
"and let McNamara
go with him as well

134
00:07:49,266 --> 00:07:51,700
"so that people can see
that the United States

135
00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:52,966
is solidly behind this man."

136
00:07:53,066 --> 00:07:56,333
We fully support the people
of South Vietnam.

137
00:08:08,266 --> 00:08:14,900
When Khanh gave a tedious, long,
laborious speech ending up with,

138
00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:17,733
"Vietnam,
Vietnam,

139
00:08:17,833 --> 00:08:19,400
Vietnam a thousand years."

140
00:08:19,500 --> 00:08:22,766
McNamara leaned over
to the microphone and said...

141
00:08:32,233 --> 00:08:33,666
What he was saying
was something like,

142
00:08:33,766 --> 00:08:37,300
"The little duck,
he wants to lie down."

143
00:08:38,700 --> 00:08:41,933
He wasn't aware
of the tonal difference.

144
00:08:42,033 --> 00:08:47,400
And McNamara grabbed one fist
and held them up.

145
00:08:47,500 --> 00:08:48,733
And the crowd practically

146
00:08:48,833 --> 00:08:50,933
disintegrated on
the cobblestones.

147
00:08:53,066 --> 00:08:54,800
"No more of this coup shit,"

148
00:08:54,900 --> 00:08:57,466
President Johnson
told his advisors.

149
00:08:57,566 --> 00:09:01,500
But Khanh, too, lacked
popular legitimacy,

150
00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:05,166
and other generals
continued to jockey for power.

151
00:09:05,266 --> 00:09:08,733
Washington turned a deaf ear
to Buddhist calls

152
00:09:08,833 --> 00:09:11,366
for the genuinely
representative government

153
00:09:11,466 --> 00:09:15,300
they'd hoped they'd get
when Diem was overthrown.

154
00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:20,733
Between January 1964
and June of 1965,

155
00:09:20,833 --> 00:09:24,700
there would be eight
different governments.

156
00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,266
All of their leaders were so
close to the Americans

157
00:09:27,366 --> 00:09:29,866
that they were seen as puppets.

158
00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:33,866
One weary Johnson aide suggested

159
00:09:33,966 --> 00:09:36,733
that the national symbol
of South Vietnam

160
00:09:36,833 --> 00:09:38,633
should be a turnstile.

161
00:09:38,733 --> 00:09:41,666
These demonstrating students
seem to symbolize

162
00:09:41,766 --> 00:09:45,600
the kind of anarchy that is
descending on Saigon these days.

163
00:09:45,700 --> 00:09:48,166
This kind of political
backbiting is having

164
00:09:48,266 --> 00:09:50,366
serious consequences
in the countryside,

165
00:09:50,466 --> 00:09:52,666
for until a strong government
begins to function

166
00:09:52,766 --> 00:09:54,166
here in Saigon,

167
00:09:54,266 --> 00:09:56,566
the war against the communists
will continue to founder.

168
00:10:34,933 --> 00:10:39,133
Ho Chi Minh was still a beloved
figure in North Vietnam,

169
00:10:39,233 --> 00:10:42,966
still concerned that his country
remained fragile,

170
00:10:43,066 --> 00:10:46,500
still wary that stepping up
the conflict in the South

171
00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:50,700
might force the Americans to
take a still more active role.

172
00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:56,000
But Ho now shared power with
younger, more impatient leaders.

173
00:10:56,100 --> 00:11:00,000
There had been change and
turmoil in North Vietnam, too,

174
00:11:00,100 --> 00:11:03,533
just as there had been
in Saigon and Washington,

175
00:11:03,633 --> 00:11:06,533
though Americans knew
almost nothing about it.

176
00:11:21,833 --> 00:11:24,466
At the Ninth Party Plenum
that began in Hanoi

177
00:11:24,566 --> 00:11:27,966
on November 22, 1963,

178
00:11:28,066 --> 00:11:30,966
the day President Kennedy
was killed in Dallas,

179
00:11:31,066 --> 00:11:36,033
the Politburo had argued over
how best to proceed in the war.

180
00:11:36,133 --> 00:11:39,500
North Vietnam's
two communist patrons,

181
00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:45,166
the Soviet Union and China, were
giving them conflicting advice.

182
00:11:59,933 --> 00:12:02,700
In two weeks of sometimes
bitter debate,

183
00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:05,633
Ho Chi Minh, who favored
the Soviet strategy,

184
00:12:05,733 --> 00:12:09,500
was outmaneuvered by party
First Secretary Le Duan,

185
00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,066
who sided with the Chinese.

186
00:12:32,900 --> 00:12:36,033
Le Duan believed
that with Diem gone,

187
00:12:36,133 --> 00:12:38,333
and the Saigon government
in disarray,

188
00:12:38,433 --> 00:12:42,833
it was time to move quickly
in 1964.

189
00:12:42,933 --> 00:12:48,033
He proposed a two-phase plan
for victory in South Vietnam.

190
00:12:48,133 --> 00:12:50,766
The first phase would destroy
ARVN forces

191
00:12:50,866 --> 00:12:53,633
through big,
"decisive battles's

192
00:12:53,733 --> 00:12:57,433
the second, an attack on
the cities, Le Duan believed,

193
00:12:57,533 --> 00:13:01,333
would then set off
popular revolts within them.

194
00:13:01,433 --> 00:13:03,466
Party leaders and others

195
00:13:03,566 --> 00:13:06,066
suspected of having opposed
the plan

196
00:13:06,166 --> 00:13:09,466
were denounced
as "revisionists," demoted,

197
00:13:09,566 --> 00:13:11,866
dismissed, imprisoned.

198
00:13:11,966 --> 00:13:15,533
Hundreds were sent
to "re-education camps."

199
00:13:15,633 --> 00:13:20,633
"Uncle Ho wavers," Le Duan said,
"but I have only one goal—

200
00:13:20,733 --> 00:13:22,500
final victory."

201
00:13:24,966 --> 00:13:26,666
Secretary McNamara on line 0.

202
00:13:26,766 --> 00:13:27,800
Bob?

203
00:13:27,900 --> 00:13:29,400
Yes, Mr. President?

204
00:13:29,500 --> 00:13:30,833
I hate to bother you, but...

205
00:13:30,933 --> 00:13:31,833
No trouble at all.

206
00:13:31,933 --> 00:13:33,600
Tell me, have we got anybody

207
00:13:33,700 --> 00:13:36,566
that's got a military mind that
can give us some military plans

208
00:13:36,666 --> 00:13:38,233
for winning that war?

209
00:13:38,333 --> 00:13:40,300
Let's get some more
of something, my friend,

210
00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:41,833
because I'm going to have
a heart attack

211
00:13:41,933 --> 00:13:43,033
if you don't get me something.

212
00:13:43,133 --> 00:13:45,233
We need somebody over there
that can get us

213
00:13:45,333 --> 00:13:46,700
some better plans than we got,

214
00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:49,733
because what we got is what
we've had since '54.

215
00:13:49,833 --> 00:13:51,333
We're not getting it done.

216
00:13:51,433 --> 00:13:52,833
We're-we're losing.

217
00:13:52,933 --> 00:13:54,933
Well, it's one reason
I want to go back.

218
00:13:55,033 --> 00:13:56,233
Kick 'em in the tail
a little bit

219
00:13:56,333 --> 00:13:57,333
will help here at this point.

220
00:13:57,433 --> 00:13:58,466
Yeah.

221
00:13:58,566 --> 00:14:00,800
What I want is somebody
to lay up some plans

222
00:14:00,900 --> 00:14:03,866
to trap these guys
and whup hell out of 'em.

223
00:14:03,966 --> 00:14:05,133
Kill some of 'em.

224
00:14:05,233 --> 00:14:06,800
That's what I want to do.

225
00:14:06,900 --> 00:14:08,900
I'll try and bring
something back

226
00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:09,933
that will meet
that objective.

227
00:14:10,033 --> 00:14:11,366
Okay, Bob.

228
00:14:11,466 --> 00:14:12,500
Thank you.

229
00:14:15,266 --> 00:14:18,133
When his counselors
urged him to do so,

230
00:14:18,233 --> 00:14:22,433
Johnson increased the number
of American military personnel

231
00:14:22,533 --> 00:14:27,466
from 16,000 to more than 23,000
by the end of the year.

232
00:14:27,566 --> 00:14:30,600
But he wanted his own team
in Saigon.

233
00:14:30,700 --> 00:14:33,133
He replaced Henry Cabot Lodge,

234
00:14:33,233 --> 00:14:36,766
making General Maxwell Taylor
his ambassador,

235
00:14:36,866 --> 00:14:41,566
and selected 49-year-old
General William Westmoreland,

236
00:14:41,666 --> 00:14:45,400
a decorated commander
from WWII and Korea,

237
00:14:45,500 --> 00:14:48,366
to lead the American
military effort.

238
00:14:48,466 --> 00:14:52,700
The president hoped to force
Hanoi to abandon its support

239
00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:54,866
for the guerrilla struggle
in the South

240
00:14:54,966 --> 00:14:58,866
by gradually escalating
military pressure.

241
00:14:58,966 --> 00:15:03,500
He authorized American pilots
to bomb North Vietnamese troops

242
00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:08,200
and installations in the
neighboring country of Laos.

243
00:15:08,300 --> 00:15:10,133
And he directed the military

244
00:15:10,233 --> 00:15:12,400
to oversee South Vietnamese
shelling

245
00:15:12,500 --> 00:15:18,033
of North Vietnamese islands
and raids on coastal bases.

246
00:15:18,133 --> 00:15:21,633
All of it was to be conducted
in secret.

247
00:15:21,733 --> 00:15:24,333
The American people
were not to be told.

248
00:15:24,433 --> 00:15:27,633
It was an election year.

249
00:15:27,733 --> 00:15:31,400
Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs
of Staff felt strongly

250
00:15:31,500 --> 00:15:33,066
that the United States
was fighting

251
00:15:33,166 --> 00:15:34,866
on the enemy's terms

252
00:15:34,966 --> 00:15:38,766
and urged far more drastic
and dramatic action—

253
00:15:38,866 --> 00:15:43,133
air strikes against "critical
targets" in North Vietnam itself

254
00:15:43,233 --> 00:15:47,433
and the deployment of U.S.
forces in South Vietnam—

255
00:15:47,533 --> 00:15:49,366
boots on the ground.

256
00:15:49,466 --> 00:15:53,633
Johnson refused, fearing
that such aggressive moves

257
00:15:53,733 --> 00:15:55,900
would pull China
into the conflict

258
00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:00,900
just as it had entered
the Korean War in 1950.

259
00:16:01,900 --> 00:16:03,000
They say get in or get out.

260
00:16:03,100 --> 00:16:03,966
McGEORGE BUNDY:
Yeah.

261
00:16:04,066 --> 00:16:05,333
And I told them,

262
00:16:05,433 --> 00:16:07,533
we haven't got any Congress
that will go with us,

263
00:16:07,633 --> 00:16:09,933
and we haven't got any
mothers that will go with us

264
00:16:10,033 --> 00:16:11,966
in the war, and I got to win
an election

265
00:16:12,066 --> 00:16:16,033
and then you can make
a decision.

266
00:16:18,233 --> 00:16:19,833
Polls showed him
with a commanding lead

267
00:16:19,933 --> 00:16:22,033
over his likely
Republican opponent,

268
00:16:22,133 --> 00:16:25,766
Senator Barry F. Goldwater
of Arizona,

269
00:16:25,866 --> 00:16:29,533
a blunt, uncompromising critic
of what he charged

270
00:16:29,633 --> 00:16:31,700
was the administration's
weakness

271
00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:34,400
in the face of
communist aggression.

272
00:16:34,500 --> 00:16:36,666
Why does he put off
facing the question

273
00:16:36,766 --> 00:16:39,733
of what to do about Vietnam?

274
00:16:39,833 --> 00:16:42,966
Does he hope that he can wait
until after the election

275
00:16:43,066 --> 00:16:45,566
to confront the American public
with the...

276
00:16:45,666 --> 00:16:49,066
Here were these communists who
were overrunning Southeast Asia

277
00:16:49,166 --> 00:16:52,333
and Johnson's doing nothing
about it.

278
00:16:52,433 --> 00:16:53,600
My opponent has not told you

279
00:16:53,700 --> 00:16:55,166
what he plans to do
about the Cold War.

280
00:16:55,266 --> 00:16:58,500
I rode around the back
of a flatbed truck in Perkasie

281
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:00,433
with a bunch of my classmates

282
00:17:00,533 --> 00:17:02,800
singing Barry Goldwater
campaign songs

283
00:17:02,900 --> 00:17:06,133
because Lyndon Johnson
was not tough enough

284
00:17:06,233 --> 00:17:07,866
on those communists.

285
00:17:10,233 --> 00:17:13,366
Johnson felt he did not
yet have the political capital

286
00:17:13,466 --> 00:17:18,066
to take further action in
Vietnam, but he asked his aide,

287
00:17:18,166 --> 00:17:21,900
William Bundy, to draft
a congressional resolution

288
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:25,033
authorizing him to use
force if needed

289
00:17:25,133 --> 00:17:28,433
to be sent to Capitol Hill
when the time was right.

290
00:17:32,233 --> 00:17:36,566
On July 30, 1964,
South Vietnamese ships

291
00:17:36,666 --> 00:17:39,300
under the direction
of the U.S. military

292
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:44,533
shelled two North Vietnamese
islands in the Gulf of Tonkin.

293
00:17:44,633 --> 00:17:49,533
The tiny North Vietnamese Navy
was put on high alert.

294
00:17:49,633 --> 00:17:52,600
What followed was one of the
most controversial

295
00:17:52,700 --> 00:17:56,100
and consequential events
in American history.

296
00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:58,966
On the afternoon of August 2,

297
00:17:59,066 --> 00:18:02,566
the destroyerU.S.S. Maddox
was moving slowly

298
00:18:02,666 --> 00:18:04,966
through international waters
in the gulf

299
00:18:05,066 --> 00:18:08,800
on an intelligence-gathering
mission in support

300
00:18:08,900 --> 00:18:12,766
of further South Vietnamese
action against the North.

301
00:18:12,866 --> 00:18:17,166
The commander of a North
Vietnamese torpedo-boat squadron

302
00:18:17,266 --> 00:18:19,833
moved to attack theMaddox.

303
00:18:19,933 --> 00:18:24,800
The Americans opened fire
and missed.

304
00:18:24,900 --> 00:18:28,766
North Vietnamese
torpedoes also missed.

305
00:18:28,866 --> 00:18:32,633
But carrier-based U.S. planes
damaged

306
00:18:32,733 --> 00:18:34,700
two of the North Vietnamese
boats

307
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:37,800
and left a third
dead in the water.

308
00:18:37,900 --> 00:18:42,233
Ho Chi Minh was shocked to hear
of his navy's attack

309
00:18:42,333 --> 00:18:45,800
and demanded to know
who had ordered it.

310
00:18:45,900 --> 00:18:48,533
The officer on duty was
officially reprimanded

311
00:18:48,633 --> 00:18:50,533
for impulsiveness.

312
00:18:50,633 --> 00:18:55,233
No one may ever know who gave
the order to attack.

313
00:18:55,333 --> 00:18:59,300
To this day, even the
Vietnamese cannot agree.

314
00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:03,133
But some believe it was Le Duan.

315
00:19:48,466 --> 00:19:49,566
Back in Washington,

316
00:19:49,666 --> 00:19:52,633
the Joint Chiefs urged
immediate retaliation

317
00:19:52,733 --> 00:19:54,500
against North Vietnam.

318
00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:57,333
The president refused.

319
00:19:57,433 --> 00:19:59,900
Instead, the White House
issued a warning

320
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,000
about the "grave consequences"
that would follow

321
00:20:03,100 --> 00:20:06,800
what it called "any further
unprovoked" attacks—

322
00:20:06,900 --> 00:20:11,000
even though Johnson knew the
attack had been provoked

323
00:20:11,100 --> 00:20:15,800
by the South Vietnamese raids
on North Vietnam's islands.

324
00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:19,700
Both sides were playing
a dangerous game.

325
00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:25,700
On August 4, American radio
operators mistranslated

326
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:27,466
North Vietnamese radio traffic

327
00:20:27,566 --> 00:20:33,333
and concluded a new military
operation was imminent.

328
00:20:33,433 --> 00:20:35,500
Actually, Hanoi had simply
called upon

329
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,666
torpedo boat commanders
to be ready for a new raid

330
00:20:39,766 --> 00:20:42,133
by the South Vietnamese.

331
00:20:42,233 --> 00:20:46,833
TheMad dox and another
destroyer, theTurner Joy,

332
00:20:46,933 --> 00:20:49,933
braced for a fresh attack.

333
00:20:50,033 --> 00:20:51,666
So did the White House.

334
00:20:51,766 --> 00:20:53,366
Go ahead, Mac.

335
00:20:53,466 --> 00:20:55,933
I-I personally would
recommend to you,

336
00:20:56,033 --> 00:20:57,900
after a second attack
on our ships,

337
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:01,800
that we do retaliate against
the coast of North Vietnam

338
00:21:01,900 --> 00:21:03,366
some way or other...

339
00:21:03,466 --> 00:21:06,966
What I was thinking about
when I was eating breakfast:

340
00:21:07,066 --> 00:21:09,833
when they move on us
and they shoot at us,

341
00:21:09,933 --> 00:21:11,500
I think we not only ought
to shoot at them,

342
00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:13,966
but almost simultaneously
pull one of these things

343
00:21:14,066 --> 00:21:16,033
that you've been doing on one
of their bridges or something.

344
00:21:16,133 --> 00:21:17,233
Exactly.

345
00:21:17,333 --> 00:21:19,000
I quite agree with you,
Mr. President.

346
00:21:19,100 --> 00:21:20,666
But I wish we could
have something

347
00:21:20,766 --> 00:21:22,600
that we've already picked out,

348
00:21:22,700 --> 00:21:26,166
and just hit about three of them
damn quick, right after.

349
00:21:26,266 --> 00:21:29,600
No second attack ever happened,

350
00:21:29,700 --> 00:21:33,833
but at the time,
anxious American sonar operators

351
00:21:33,933 --> 00:21:38,633
aboard theMaddo x andTurner
Joy
convinced themselves one had.

352
00:21:38,733 --> 00:21:43,366
The attack was probable but
not certain, Johnson was told,

353
00:21:43,466 --> 00:21:46,466
and since it had
probably occurred,

354
00:21:46,566 --> 00:21:50,666
the president decided
it should not go unanswered.

355
00:21:53,033 --> 00:21:56,400
Aggression by terror
against the peaceful villagers

356
00:21:56,500 --> 00:22:01,000
of South Vietnam has now been
joined by open aggression

357
00:22:01,100 --> 00:22:05,233
on the high seas against
the United States of America.

358
00:22:05,333 --> 00:22:09,100
Yet our response,
for the present,

359
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:11,666
will be limited and fitting.

360
00:22:11,766 --> 00:22:17,200
We Americans know, although
others appear to forget,

361
00:22:17,300 --> 00:22:19,933
the risk of spreading conflict.

362
00:22:20,033 --> 00:22:25,533
We still seek no wider war.

363
00:22:25,633 --> 00:22:29,000
If that came to be where we
would be called upon

364
00:22:29,100 --> 00:22:31,966
to carry out our
responsibilities,

365
00:22:32,066 --> 00:22:34,666
and having been well trained
for this,

366
00:22:34,766 --> 00:22:36,333
I never really gave it much
thought.

367
00:22:36,433 --> 00:22:38,700
It was part of my duty.

368
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:42,266
Lieutenant Everett Alvarez
from Salinas, California,

369
00:22:42,366 --> 00:22:45,900
was aboard the U.S.S. carrier
Constellation.

370
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,566
His squadron of
Skyhawk A-4 planes

371
00:22:49,666 --> 00:22:52,266
was ordered to attack
torpedo boat installations

372
00:22:52,366 --> 00:22:56,900
and oil facilities
near the port of Hon Gai.

373
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:01,766
For the first time, American
pilots were going to drop bombs

374
00:23:01,866 --> 00:23:03,900
on North Vietnam.

375
00:23:05,166 --> 00:23:06,400
When we approached the target

376
00:23:06,500 --> 00:23:08,133
coming down from altitude,

377
00:23:08,233 --> 00:23:11,333
it was obvious that they could
pick us up on their radar.

378
00:23:11,433 --> 00:23:13,966
I remember my knees shaking.

379
00:23:14,066 --> 00:23:16,966
And I was saying, "Holy smokes,
I'm going into war."

380
00:23:18,833 --> 00:23:20,900
"This is war."

381
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:23,633
I was a bit scared.

382
00:23:23,733 --> 00:23:28,466
Once we went in
and they started firing at us,

383
00:23:28,566 --> 00:23:30,866
the fear went away.

384
00:23:30,966 --> 00:23:35,633
Everything became smooth,
deathly quiet in the cockpit.

385
00:23:35,733 --> 00:23:38,466
It was sort of like a symphony

386
00:23:38,566 --> 00:23:43,966
in the sense that my plane was
just like a ballet in the sky,

387
00:23:44,066 --> 00:23:47,566
and I was just performing
what I was doing.

388
00:23:49,766 --> 00:23:50,800
And then I got hit.

389
00:23:50,900 --> 00:23:51,966
Mayday, Mayday.

390
00:23:53,333 --> 00:23:57,033
Coastal militiamen
captured Alvarez

391
00:23:57,133 --> 00:23:59,566
and turned him over to the
North Vietnamese military.

392
00:23:59,666 --> 00:24:05,400
One fella was yelling at me in
Vietnamese and saying something.

393
00:24:05,500 --> 00:24:08,466
I started talking to him
in Spanish.

394
00:24:08,566 --> 00:24:10,433
Don't ask me why.

395
00:24:10,533 --> 00:24:13,633
It seemed like a good idea
at the time.

396
00:24:15,566 --> 00:24:20,700
After when they discovered
U.S.A. on my ID card

397
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:25,700
and then they started speaking
to me in English.

398
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:29,900
Alvarez assumed he would be
treated as a prisoner of war.

399
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:32,233
I was sticking
to the code of conduct,

400
00:24:32,333 --> 00:24:34,600
which is giving them name,
rank, service number,

401
00:24:34,700 --> 00:24:35,933
and date of birth.

402
00:24:37,466 --> 00:24:41,466
But they quickly reminded me
that there was no state of war,

403
00:24:41,566 --> 00:24:44,100
no declaration of war.

404
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,933
So I could not be considered
a prisoner of war.

405
00:24:49,466 --> 00:24:50,866
I recall thinking about it,

406
00:24:50,966 --> 00:24:52,566
and I says, "You know what?

407
00:24:52,666 --> 00:24:54,100
They're right."

408
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,466
Everett Alvarez was
the first American airman

409
00:24:57,566 --> 00:25:00,933
to be shot out of the sky
over North Vietnam

410
00:25:01,033 --> 00:25:03,733
and the first to be
imprisoned there.

411
00:25:06,266 --> 00:25:08,566
Now, the president sent up
to Capitol Hill

412
00:25:08,666 --> 00:25:12,366
the resolution he had asked
his aide William Bundy to draft

413
00:25:12,466 --> 00:25:14,900
two months earlier.

414
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,833
Johnson is sort of
prepositioned to move anyway,

415
00:25:18,933 --> 00:25:22,700
and it gives him really
the incident that he needs

416
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,366
to go to Congress
and ask for a resolution

417
00:25:25,466 --> 00:25:27,500
that will allow him to deal
with what he sees

418
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:29,266
as aggression in Vietnam.

419
00:25:29,366 --> 00:25:31,700
And what he gets is the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,

420
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,400
which is, what he says,
like "Grandma's nightshirt"--

421
00:25:35,500 --> 00:25:36,933
it covers everything.

422
00:25:37,033 --> 00:25:41,400
I think what Johnson is looking
for is the opportunity,

423
00:25:41,500 --> 00:25:45,300
the right time to send a message
to North Vietnam

424
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:49,366
that we're serious about
supporting South Vietnam.

425
00:25:49,466 --> 00:25:51,566
That message is sent,

426
00:25:51,666 --> 00:25:53,400
I think we misread the enemy

427
00:25:53,500 --> 00:25:55,766
because they're just as serious
as we are.

428
00:25:57,166 --> 00:26:00,266
On August 7, 1964,

429
00:26:00,366 --> 00:26:04,033
by a vote of 88-2,
the Senate passed

430
00:26:04,133 --> 00:26:08,166
what came to be called
the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

431
00:26:08,266 --> 00:26:12,533
In the House, not a single
congressman opposed it.

432
00:26:12,633 --> 00:26:16,433
Senator Goldwater could
no longer plausibly claim

433
00:26:16,533 --> 00:26:18,600
Johnson was failing
to fight back

434
00:26:18,700 --> 00:26:22,433
against North Vietnam,
while those voters concerned

435
00:26:22,533 --> 00:26:24,566
that the United States
was in danger

436
00:26:24,666 --> 00:26:27,000
of becoming too deeply involved

437
00:26:27,100 --> 00:26:31,000
admired the president's
measured response.

438
00:26:31,100 --> 00:26:34,833
Support for Johnson's handling
of the war jumped overnight

439
00:26:34,933 --> 00:26:38,400
from 42% to 72%.

440
00:26:38,500 --> 00:26:41,500
The American public believed
their president.

441
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,133
Le Duan and his comrades
in Hanoi did not.

442
00:26:46,233 --> 00:26:48,866
They had little faith
in the president's claim

443
00:26:48,966 --> 00:26:51,000
that he sought no wider war.

444
00:26:51,100 --> 00:26:54,000
They resolved to step up
their efforts

445
00:26:54,100 --> 00:26:55,600
to win the struggle in the South

446
00:26:55,700 --> 00:26:58,733
before the United States
escalated its presence

447
00:26:58,833 --> 00:27:01,166
by sending in combat troops.

448
00:27:02,433 --> 00:27:04,433
For the first time,

449
00:27:04,533 --> 00:27:07,133
Hanoi began sending
North Vietnamese regulars

450
00:27:07,233 --> 00:27:09,866
into the South,
down the network of paths

451
00:27:09,966 --> 00:27:13,200
they had hacked out
of the Laotian jungle—

452
00:27:13,300 --> 00:27:15,300
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

453
00:27:16,566 --> 00:27:18,333
This is Bien Hoa Air Base,

454
00:27:18,433 --> 00:27:19,966
the biggest in South Vietnam,

455
00:27:20,066 --> 00:27:23,733
hours after being hit
by a communist mortar barrage.

456
00:27:23,833 --> 00:27:26,900
On November 1,
Viet Cong guerrillas shelled

457
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:31,066
the American airbase at Bien Hoa
near Saigon.

458
00:27:31,166 --> 00:27:33,466
Five Americans died.

459
00:27:33,566 --> 00:27:35,600
Thirty were wounded.

460
00:27:35,700 --> 00:27:39,866
Five B-57 bombers were destroyed
on the ground

461
00:27:39,966 --> 00:27:41,866
and 15 more were damaged.

462
00:27:41,966 --> 00:27:43,666
Mr. Ambassador,

463
00:27:43,766 --> 00:27:45,800
do you think this shows
any new capability

464
00:27:45,900 --> 00:27:47,933
that they've got,
the Viet Cong?

465
00:27:48,033 --> 00:27:50,366
Uh, I would simply say
they've never done this before.

466
00:27:53,100 --> 00:27:55,533
The Joint Chiefs advised
the president to mount

467
00:27:55,633 --> 00:28:00,133
an immediate all-out air attack
on 94 targets in the North

468
00:28:00,233 --> 00:28:03,466
and to send in regular
Army and Marine units—

469
00:28:03,566 --> 00:28:07,533
not more advisors—
to South Vietnam as well.

470
00:28:07,633 --> 00:28:09,033
He would not do it.

471
00:28:09,133 --> 00:28:11,633
The election was
just two days away.

472
00:28:13,966 --> 00:28:18,100
Lyndon Baines Johnson won the
presidency in his own right,

473
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,200
and he won it by a landslide.

474
00:28:22,033 --> 00:28:24,400
Within a month, the president
would approve

475
00:28:24,500 --> 00:28:27,100
what was called
a "graduated response"--

476
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:31,100
limited air attacks on
the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos

477
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,166
and "tit for tat"
retaliatory raids

478
00:28:34,266 --> 00:28:37,166
on North Vietnamese targets.

479
00:28:37,266 --> 00:28:41,166
But he refused to undertake
sustained bombing of the North

480
00:28:41,266 --> 00:28:45,266
until the South Vietnamese
got their own house in order.

481
00:28:47,100 --> 00:28:52,200
In private, Johnson doubted that
airpower alone would ever work

482
00:28:52,300 --> 00:28:54,766
and believed that he would
eventually have to send in

483
00:28:54,866 --> 00:28:56,133
ground troops,

484
00:28:56,233 --> 00:28:59,866
though he was not yet willing
publicly to say so.

485
00:29:05,833 --> 00:29:09,600
In the fall of '64,
Denton was 17

486
00:29:09,700 --> 00:29:14,033
and he was determined
to go into the service.

487
00:29:14,133 --> 00:29:18,000
Mogie Crocker had been restless
since the summer.

488
00:29:18,100 --> 00:29:21,166
After the Gulf of Tonkin
incident, he had confided

489
00:29:21,266 --> 00:29:23,800
to his sister that he wanted
to join the Navy,

490
00:29:23,900 --> 00:29:27,366
but he knew his parents would
not sign the consent form

491
00:29:27,466 --> 00:29:31,966
that would have allowed
a 17-year-old to enlist.

492
00:29:32,066 --> 00:29:35,800
He was talking about
wanting to go into the service

493
00:29:35,900 --> 00:29:38,333
and that his attempts
to go underage had failed.

494
00:29:38,433 --> 00:29:41,866
And that he wanted my parents
to support him in that.

495
00:29:41,966 --> 00:29:44,366
His parents tried
to persuade him

496
00:29:44,466 --> 00:29:46,533
that he could be more useful
to his country

497
00:29:46,633 --> 00:29:51,200
with a college education
than as just another private.

498
00:29:51,300 --> 00:29:54,066
Mogie was adamant.

499
00:29:54,166 --> 00:29:57,733
Monday morning he left
for school.

500
00:29:57,833 --> 00:30:00,466
And I watched him leave.

501
00:30:00,566 --> 00:30:02,500
But that night he didn't
come in for supper

502
00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:03,700
and he hadn't called.

503
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:07,166
The day that my brother
ran away has to be

504
00:30:07,266 --> 00:30:11,566
one of the most bizarre
experiences in my life.

505
00:30:11,666 --> 00:30:14,800
I eventually happened
to look in my piggy bank

506
00:30:14,900 --> 00:30:18,433
and he had taken the money I had
and left a note for me.

507
00:30:18,533 --> 00:30:21,200
He had promised
he would pay me back.

508
00:30:21,300 --> 00:30:24,033
He was gone about four months

509
00:30:24,133 --> 00:30:27,433
and said that he would not
come home

510
00:30:27,533 --> 00:30:29,966
unless we agreed
to sign for him.

511
00:30:30,066 --> 00:30:34,300
And he wouldn't be 18
until June.

512
00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,766
But we did agree
and he did come home.

513
00:30:37,866 --> 00:30:42,366
My husband felt it was
an honor-bound agreement.

514
00:30:42,466 --> 00:30:45,466
I was hoping that
I could change his mind.

515
00:30:50,366 --> 00:30:54,166
To my mind, the Marine Corps
represented the very best.

516
00:30:54,266 --> 00:30:55,633
And it does.

517
00:30:55,733 --> 00:30:58,233
They are the best.

518
00:30:58,333 --> 00:31:00,800
And I wanted to be
part of the best.

519
00:31:00,900 --> 00:31:02,566
I was competitive.

520
00:31:02,666 --> 00:31:03,733
I was pugnacious.

521
00:31:03,833 --> 00:31:05,833
But I wanted to get
in the Marine Corps

522
00:31:05,933 --> 00:31:08,533
and go to the first war
I could find.

523
00:31:08,633 --> 00:31:11,900
Lieutenant Philip Brady, from
Port Washington, New York,

524
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,766
arrived in Saigon
just a few days

525
00:31:14,866 --> 00:31:17,100
after Lyndon Johnson's election,

526
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:19,833
one of the new advisors sent
to help shore up

527
00:31:19,933 --> 00:31:22,766
the South Vietnamese military.

528
00:31:22,866 --> 00:31:27,133
We must ensure that women and
children are not injured.

529
00:31:27,233 --> 00:31:30,533
General Westmoreland himself
greeted the newcomers.

530
00:31:30,633 --> 00:31:34,500
He was an impressive-looking man
with an impressive record.

531
00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:38,800
Many of the men he'd led in
Tunisia, Sicily, and Normandy

532
00:31:38,900 --> 00:31:42,500
during World War II
called him Superman.

533
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:44,766
He'd fought with distinction
in Korea,

534
00:31:44,866 --> 00:31:47,600
commanded the 101st Airborne,

535
00:31:47,700 --> 00:31:50,433
served as superintendent
of West Point.

536
00:31:50,533 --> 00:31:51,866
TIME magazine called him

537
00:31:51,966 --> 00:31:56,366
"the sinewy personification
of the American fighting man."

538
00:31:56,466 --> 00:31:57,600
But at the same time,

539
00:31:57,700 --> 00:31:59,800
win the hearts and the minds
of the people.

540
00:31:59,900 --> 00:32:02,566
General Westmoreland told us
that we were down

541
00:32:02,666 --> 00:32:05,333
on the five-yard line and
we just needed a few more

542
00:32:05,433 --> 00:32:09,333
to go get the touchdown.

543
00:32:09,433 --> 00:32:12,433
Then I went out
and then I got on the ground.

544
00:32:12,533 --> 00:32:15,166
And then I found out,
"Don't you realize?

545
00:32:15,266 --> 00:32:17,566
We're losing this war."

546
00:32:17,666 --> 00:32:22,233
Lieutenant Brady was assigned
to assist Captain Frank Eller,

547
00:32:22,333 --> 00:32:24,600
senior advisor
to the 4th Battalion

548
00:32:24,700 --> 00:32:27,899
of the Vietnamese Marine Corps,
an elite unit

549
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:32,233
whose members called themselves
the "Killer Sharks."

550
00:32:32,333 --> 00:32:36,100
You were told that you were
going over there to guide,

551
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:40,333
educate, and elevate essentially
these "little fellas"

552
00:32:40,433 --> 00:32:42,399
on how to fight a war

553
00:32:42,500 --> 00:32:45,566
when, in fact, they knew exactly
how to fight the war.

554
00:32:45,666 --> 00:32:47,766
You were just an appendage.

555
00:32:47,866 --> 00:32:51,466
You were there simply to guide
assets that they didn't have:

556
00:32:51,566 --> 00:32:55,899
American artillery,
American air strikes.

557
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,600
Brady did his best
to get to know

558
00:32:58,700 --> 00:33:00,966
the South Vietnamese
marines in his unit.

559
00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:31,966
Lieutenant Tran Ngoc Toan,
the son of a trucker,

560
00:33:32,066 --> 00:33:34,400
had escaped life with
a hostile stepmother

561
00:33:34,500 --> 00:33:39,066
by entering the South Vietnamese
Military Academy at Dalat.

562
00:33:39,166 --> 00:33:43,500
He'd been fighting the Viet
Cong for more than two years.

563
00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:44,933
Toan was one of
the junior officers.

564
00:33:45,033 --> 00:33:46,400
I think he was a...

565
00:33:46,500 --> 00:33:47,833
I think he was
a company commander.

566
00:33:47,933 --> 00:33:50,133
I knew him, I liked him.

567
00:33:50,233 --> 00:33:53,300
He was a Dalat graduate,
which is like their West Point.

568
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:55,200
Very dedicated.

569
00:34:05,266 --> 00:34:09,866
Brady, Toan, and the 4th South
Vietnamese Marine Battalion

570
00:34:09,966 --> 00:34:13,166
were stationed near the Bien Hoa
Airbase in reserve,

571
00:34:13,266 --> 00:34:17,133
waiting to be called
into action.

572
00:34:17,233 --> 00:34:19,033
There were new rumors now,

573
00:34:19,133 --> 00:34:23,666
of larger enemy units moving
through the countryside.

574
00:34:23,766 --> 00:34:26,666
Le Duan's plan to win a
quick and decisive victory

575
00:34:26,766 --> 00:34:28,500
was underway.

576
00:35:26,866 --> 00:35:29,366
Nguyen Van Tong was
a political officer

577
00:35:29,466 --> 00:35:32,533
in the newly created
Viet Cong 9th Division,

578
00:35:32,633 --> 00:35:36,566
one of perhaps 2,000 Viet Cong
and North Vietnamese troops

579
00:35:36,666 --> 00:35:41,433
who had for weeks been quietly
filtering into Phuoc Tuy,

580
00:35:41,533 --> 00:35:43,466
a supposedly "pacified" province

581
00:35:43,566 --> 00:35:46,933
less than 40 miles southeast
of Saigon.

582
00:36:08,066 --> 00:36:11,300
The target for Tong
and his comrades

583
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:14,200
was the strategic hamlet
of Binh Gia,

584
00:36:14,300 --> 00:36:18,700
home to some 6,000 Catholic
anticommunist refugees.

585
00:36:20,333 --> 00:36:23,033
Their plan was to seize
the hamlet

586
00:36:23,133 --> 00:36:26,866
and then annihilate the forces
Saigon was sure to send

587
00:36:26,966 --> 00:36:28,466
to retake it.

588
00:36:28,566 --> 00:36:30,933
To ensure success,

589
00:36:31,033 --> 00:36:34,433
tons of heavy weapons
were smuggled onto the coast

590
00:36:34,533 --> 00:36:36,400
under cover of darkness—

591
00:36:36,500 --> 00:36:39,566
mortars, machine guns,
recoilless rifles

592
00:36:39,666 --> 00:36:42,466
capable of blasting tanks.

593
00:36:42,566 --> 00:36:45,166
The communists
had never attempted

594
00:36:45,266 --> 00:36:48,133
anything on this scale before.

595
00:36:48,233 --> 00:36:51,433
Before dawn on December 28,

596
00:36:51,533 --> 00:36:55,633
Viet Cong advance units easily
overwhelmed the village militia

597
00:36:55,733 --> 00:36:57,466
and occupied Binh Gia.

598
00:37:00,433 --> 00:37:03,400
When two crack South Vietnamese
Ranger companies

599
00:37:03,500 --> 00:37:05,633
were helicoptered in
the next day,

600
00:37:05,733 --> 00:37:09,700
they were ambushed
and shot to pieces.

601
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,100
On the morning of the 30th,

602
00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:15,466
Philip Brady,
his friend Tran Ngoc Toan,

603
00:37:15,566 --> 00:37:19,400
and the 4th Marine Battalion
were flown in to relieve

604
00:37:19,500 --> 00:37:22,066
and reinforce the Rangers.

605
00:37:22,166 --> 00:37:25,633
The enemy withdrew
east of the village.

606
00:37:55,166 --> 00:37:59,633
All of a sudden you could see
the tracers come out

607
00:37:59,733 --> 00:38:03,233
of the plantation,
hit the helicopter, it crashed.

608
00:38:03,333 --> 00:38:06,333
We were ordered to go down
and retrieve the remains

609
00:38:06,433 --> 00:38:08,266
the following morning.

610
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:44,933
The lead company
got to the remains

611
00:38:45,033 --> 00:38:48,866
and then was pounced on
and mauled badly.

612
00:38:53,166 --> 00:38:56,566
Twelve South Vietnamese Marines
from Toan's unit were killed

613
00:38:56,666 --> 00:38:59,166
getting to the downed
helicopter.

614
00:38:59,266 --> 00:39:01,033
Their comrades wrapped them
in ponchos

615
00:39:01,133 --> 00:39:05,333
and laid them out
next to the dead Americans.

616
00:39:05,433 --> 00:39:08,200
An American chopper
dropped into the clearing.

617
00:39:08,300 --> 00:39:10,833
The American crew jumped out
under fire,

618
00:39:10,933 --> 00:39:13,066
picked up the four Americans,

619
00:39:13,166 --> 00:39:16,833
climbed back into their chopper,
and took off again.

620
00:39:27,900 --> 00:39:33,100
For three hours, Toan and his
men stayed with their own dead

621
00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:37,366
waiting for a helicopter to
carry them off the battlefield.

622
00:39:39,133 --> 00:39:42,366
Meanwhile, I am getting
a little bit antsy

623
00:39:42,466 --> 00:39:44,800
because, first of all,
we're losing light.

624
00:39:44,900 --> 00:39:48,533
Second of all, we are now
outside of artillery range.

625
00:39:48,633 --> 00:39:50,966
We've got to get out of there.

626
00:40:01,366 --> 00:40:04,433
I went to the Major Nho,
his name was, and I said,

627
00:40:04,533 --> 00:40:07,633
"Major, we have to get
out of here now."

628
00:40:07,733 --> 00:40:12,133
And Nho said, "Don't you forget
I am a major,

629
00:40:12,233 --> 00:40:13,300
and you are a lieutenant,"

630
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:16,533
turned on his heel
and walked away.

631
00:40:16,633 --> 00:40:21,966
Ten minutes later
all hell broke loose.

632
00:40:42,100 --> 00:40:44,966
The shelling eventually
died down.

633
00:40:45,066 --> 00:40:47,466
But then bugles blew,

634
00:40:47,566 --> 00:40:50,066
and wave after wave
of enemy troops

635
00:40:50,166 --> 00:40:52,333
advanced toward
the badly outnumbered men.

636
00:40:55,666 --> 00:40:59,166
It was as if you turned
a soundtrack of shooting...

637
00:41:02,533 --> 00:41:04,566
And just went

638
00:41:04,666 --> 00:41:05,733
Just like that.

639
00:41:05,833 --> 00:41:07,533
All of a sudden it
came out of nowhere.

640
00:41:11,166 --> 00:41:14,466
We used what little air strikes
we had left with helicopters,

641
00:41:14,566 --> 00:41:18,800
calling in the strikes on our
position to slow it down.

642
00:41:18,900 --> 00:41:21,966
There was no way.

643
00:41:59,300 --> 00:42:02,400
What we did was
we tried to get out.

644
00:42:02,500 --> 00:42:05,433
Twenty-six of us broke through.

645
00:42:05,533 --> 00:42:08,300
Eleven ultimately made it.

646
00:42:09,433 --> 00:42:10,633
All that night,

647
00:42:10,733 --> 00:42:12,833
the Viet Cong moved among
the trees,

648
00:42:12,933 --> 00:42:14,666
carrying away their wounded

649
00:42:14,766 --> 00:42:17,666
and shooting any South
Vietnamese troops

650
00:42:17,766 --> 00:42:19,933
they found alive.

651
00:42:46,500 --> 00:42:48,500
Cradling his rifle in his arms,

652
00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:52,233
Toan began trying to
crawl toward Binh Gia.

653
00:42:52,333 --> 00:42:55,533
He was not found for three days.

654
00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:33,133
When it was all over, five
Americans had died at Binh Gia.

655
00:43:33,233 --> 00:43:38,133
Thirty-two Viet Cong bodies had
been left on the battlefield.

656
00:43:38,233 --> 00:43:41,766
200 South Vietnamese
were killed;

657
00:43:41,866 --> 00:43:46,400
200 more were wounded.

658
00:44:01,300 --> 00:44:04,000
What it really said was

659
00:44:04,100 --> 00:44:08,400
they were capable of
marshaling this kind of force.

660
00:44:08,500 --> 00:44:10,600
The Vietnamese officers
I talked to in the Marine Corps

661
00:44:10,700 --> 00:44:13,366
figured they had six months
before the end.

662
00:44:13,466 --> 00:44:16,933
The big question after Binh Gia,

663
00:44:17,033 --> 00:44:19,333
an American officer
at headquarters said,

664
00:44:19,433 --> 00:44:22,400
is how a thousand or more
enemy troops

665
00:44:22,500 --> 00:44:25,933
"could wander around the
countryside so close to Saigon

666
00:44:26,033 --> 00:44:27,900
"without being discovered.

667
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:32,833
That tells you something
about this war."

668
00:44:32,933 --> 00:44:35,333
Hanoi was exultant.

669
00:44:35,433 --> 00:44:38,533
Ho Chi Minh called it
"a little Dien Bien Phu."

670
00:44:38,633 --> 00:44:43,000
Le Duan was convinced
his strategy was working.

671
00:44:43,100 --> 00:44:46,366
"The liberation war
of South Vietnam has progressed

672
00:44:46,466 --> 00:44:48,966
by leaps and bounds,"
he said.

673
00:44:49,066 --> 00:44:52,500
"After the battle of Ap Bac
two years ago,

674
00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:56,433
"the enemy knew it would be
difficult to defeat us.

675
00:44:56,533 --> 00:44:59,466
"After Binh Gia,
the enemy realizes

676
00:44:59,566 --> 00:45:04,600
that he is in the process
of being defeated by us."

677
00:45:19,233 --> 00:45:20,466
I, Lyndon Baines Johnson,

678
00:45:20,566 --> 00:45:22,500
do solemnly swear...

679
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,866
Twenty-six days after
the Binh Gia battle ended

680
00:45:25,966 --> 00:45:29,200
and just a week after President
Johnson's inauguration,

681
00:45:29,300 --> 00:45:32,566
McGeorge Bundy handed the
president a memorandum.

682
00:45:32,666 --> 00:45:34,733
I will to the best
of my ability.

683
00:45:34,833 --> 00:45:38,566
The current strategy was clearly
not working, it said.

684
00:45:38,666 --> 00:45:42,066
The Viet Cong were on the move
and on the rise,

685
00:45:42,166 --> 00:45:45,533
supplied and now steadily
reinforced

686
00:45:45,633 --> 00:45:48,366
with soldiers
from North Vietnam.

687
00:45:48,466 --> 00:45:53,100
If an independent South Vietnam
was to survive,

688
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:56,366
the United States needed
to act fast.

689
00:45:56,466 --> 00:46:00,366
The administration faced
two choices, Bundy said.

690
00:46:00,466 --> 00:46:02,933
It could go along
as it had been going

691
00:46:03,033 --> 00:46:06,966
and try to negotiate some kind
of face-saving settlement.

692
00:46:07,066 --> 00:46:11,866
Or they could use still more
American military power

693
00:46:11,966 --> 00:46:15,600
to force the North to abandon
its goal of uniting the country.

694
00:46:15,700 --> 00:46:19,866
Bundy and McNamara favored
that option.

695
00:46:19,966 --> 00:46:22,833
Unless the president chose it,
they said,

696
00:46:22,933 --> 00:46:24,833
South Vietnam would fall.

697
00:46:24,933 --> 00:46:28,600
"I don't think anything,"
Johnson told McNamara,

698
00:46:28,700 --> 00:46:31,500
"is going to be as bad
as losing."

699
00:46:36,366 --> 00:46:38,866
Then, a little over
a week later,

700
00:46:38,966 --> 00:46:42,466
guerrillas struck an American
helicopter base at Pleiku

701
00:46:42,566 --> 00:46:44,266
in the Central Highlands,

702
00:46:44,366 --> 00:46:49,066
killing eight American advisors
and wounding over 100 more.

703
00:46:49,166 --> 00:46:51,100
Approximately 24 hours ago,

704
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,600
the first attack in
the Pleiku area...

705
00:46:53,700 --> 00:46:56,300
Johnson immediately approved
an air strike

706
00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:59,200
on a North Vietnamese
army barracks.

707
00:47:00,433 --> 00:47:03,833
On February 10, 1965,

708
00:47:03,933 --> 00:47:07,100
the Viet Cong blew up a hotel
in Qui Nhon,

709
00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:13,633
killing 23 Americans and pinning
21 more beneath the rubble.

710
00:47:13,733 --> 00:47:17,100
Johnson ordered
another air strike.

711
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:20,600
Anxiety about what
seemed to be happening

712
00:47:20,700 --> 00:47:23,200
spread around the world.

713
00:47:23,300 --> 00:47:26,133
France, which had spent nearly
a century in Vietnam,

714
00:47:26,233 --> 00:47:30,500
now called for an end to all
foreign involvement there.

715
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:34,133
The British prime minister
urged restraint.

716
00:47:34,233 --> 00:47:37,866
Many leaders of the president's
own party agreed,

717
00:47:37,966 --> 00:47:40,466
though not in public.

718
00:47:40,566 --> 00:47:42,633
In a private memorandum,

719
00:47:42,733 --> 00:47:45,266
Johnson's own vice president,
Hubert Humphrey,

720
00:47:45,366 --> 00:47:48,633
warned him that widening
the war would undercut

721
00:47:48,733 --> 00:47:53,366
the Great Society,
damage America's image overseas,

722
00:47:53,466 --> 00:47:57,900
and end any hope of improving
relations with the Soviet Union.

723
00:47:59,300 --> 00:48:01,600
Johnson never responded.

724
00:48:01,700 --> 00:48:04,733
Instead, on March 2, 1965,

725
00:48:04,833 --> 00:48:08,366
the United States began
a systematic bombardment

726
00:48:08,466 --> 00:48:10,366
of targets in North Vietnam,

727
00:48:10,466 --> 00:48:14,400
code-named
Operation Rolling Thunder.

728
00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:19,466
It was meant to be a "mounting
crescendo" of air raids,

729
00:48:19,566 --> 00:48:21,066
Ambassador Taylor wrote,

730
00:48:21,166 --> 00:48:24,200
intended to bolster morale
in the South

731
00:48:24,300 --> 00:48:29,000
and destroy morale in the North.

732
00:48:29,100 --> 00:48:32,066
The thesis behind
Rolling Thunder,

733
00:48:32,166 --> 00:48:37,766
as I understood it, was that as
we ratcheted up the tempo

734
00:48:37,866 --> 00:48:42,433
and the volume of this effort
against the North Vietnamese,

735
00:48:42,533 --> 00:48:45,400
sooner or later
they would cry uncle.

736
00:48:48,066 --> 00:48:50,766
And there'd be a pause,

737
00:48:50,866 --> 00:48:55,400
and we would begin to negotiate
our way out of this situation.

738
00:48:55,500 --> 00:48:58,300
This became an article of faith.

739
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:02,166
And this article of faith
was a fallacious assumption.

740
00:49:02,266 --> 00:49:04,700
They weren't going to give up.

741
00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:09,066
They read us better
than we read them.

742
00:49:09,166 --> 00:49:13,100
The president insisted
on strict secrecy—

743
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,400
the American people were not
to be told

744
00:49:16,500 --> 00:49:19,800
that the administration had
changed its policy

745
00:49:19,900 --> 00:49:23,733
from retaliatory airstrikes
to systematic bombing;

746
00:49:23,833 --> 00:49:27,066
that he had, in fact,
widened the war.

747
00:49:27,166 --> 00:49:30,766
They jointly agreed that
joint retaliatory action

748
00:49:30,866 --> 00:49:32,366
was required.

749
00:49:32,466 --> 00:49:36,200
General Westmoreland,
who had initially been hesitant

750
00:49:36,300 --> 00:49:39,000
about committing ground troops
to Vietnam,

751
00:49:39,100 --> 00:49:43,700
now asked for two battalions
of Marines— 3,500 men—

752
00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:46,133
to protect the Danang airbase

753
00:49:46,233 --> 00:49:49,700
from which fighter-bombers
were hitting the North.

754
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:53,733
Ambassador Taylor, who had once
called for ground troops,

755
00:49:53,833 --> 00:49:56,433
now objected to the whole idea.

756
00:49:56,533 --> 00:49:59,966
"Once you put that first soldier
ashore," he wrote,

757
00:50:00,066 --> 00:50:03,966
"you never know how many others
are going to follow him."

758
00:50:04,066 --> 00:50:07,966
But the president felt he had no
choice but to give Westmoreland

759
00:50:08,066 --> 00:50:10,100
what he asked for.

760
00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:15,133
He knew he would be blamed
if more American advisors died.

761
00:50:15,233 --> 00:50:19,200
"I feel like a jackass caught
in a Texas hailstorm,"

762
00:50:19,300 --> 00:50:20,800
he complained.

763
00:50:20,900 --> 00:50:26,033
"I can't run, I can't hide,
and I can't make it stop."

764
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:29,500
In March of 1965,

765
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:32,400
Johnson finally took the action
he had managed to avoid

766
00:50:32,500 --> 00:50:34,566
for so long.

767
00:50:34,666 --> 00:50:36,866
♪ Kiss me goodbye...

768
00:50:36,966 --> 00:50:39,966
He was putting American
ground troops in Vietnam.

769
00:50:48,300 --> 00:50:52,033
The government of South Vietnam
was not even consulted;

770
00:50:52,133 --> 00:50:56,600
the United States of America
had larger considerations.

771
00:50:58,733 --> 00:51:03,200
Clearly, we saw it in terms
of the Cold War.

772
00:51:03,300 --> 00:51:07,366
Assistant Secretary of Defense
John McNaughton said...

773
00:51:07,466 --> 00:51:08,966
He said our interests there

774
00:51:09,066 --> 00:51:14,466
were 70% to avoid humiliation,

775
00:51:14,566 --> 00:51:18,300
20% to contain China,

776
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:21,800
and ten percent to help
the Vietnamese.

777
00:51:24,100 --> 00:51:26,766
Johnson quietly told
his good friend,

778
00:51:26,866 --> 00:51:29,066
Senator Richard Russell
of Georgia,

779
00:51:29,166 --> 00:51:31,500
what was about to happen.

780
00:51:31,600 --> 00:51:34,300
I guess we got no choice, but it
scares the death out of me.

781
00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:35,666
I think everybody's going
to think,

782
00:51:35,766 --> 00:51:37,233
"We're landing the Marines.

783
00:51:37,333 --> 00:51:39,000
We're off to battle."

784
00:51:39,100 --> 00:51:40,633
Of course,
if they come up there,

785
00:51:40,733 --> 00:51:41,866
they're going to get them
in a fight.

786
00:51:41,966 --> 00:51:43,300
And if they ruin
those airplanes,

787
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:45,300
everybody is going to give me
hell for not securing them,

788
00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:47,133
just like they did last
time they made a raid.

789
00:51:47,233 --> 00:51:48,533
Yeah.

790
00:51:48,633 --> 00:51:49,833
What do you...
what do you think?

791
00:51:49,933 --> 00:51:51,600
Well, Mr. President,

792
00:51:51,700 --> 00:51:52,766
it scares the life out of me.

793
00:51:52,866 --> 00:51:54,266
But I don't know how
to back up now.

794
00:51:54,366 --> 00:51:56,566
It looks to me like we just got
in this thing,

795
00:51:56,666 --> 00:51:57,766
and there's no way out.

796
00:51:57,866 --> 00:51:59,133
I don't know.

797
00:51:59,233 --> 00:52:02,133
Dick, the great trouble
I'm under...

798
00:52:02,233 --> 00:52:05,300
A man can fight
if he can see daylight

799
00:52:05,400 --> 00:52:06,933
down the road somewhere.

800
00:52:07,033 --> 00:52:08,900
But there ain't no daylight
in Vietnam.

801
00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:10,933
There's not a bit.

802
00:52:13,500 --> 00:52:17,300
On March 8, 1965,
Dr. Phan Huy Quat,

803
00:52:17,400 --> 00:52:20,433
yet another prime minister
of South Vietnam,

804
00:52:20,533 --> 00:52:24,400
called his chief of staff,
Bui Diem.

805
00:52:58,100 --> 00:53:00,400
The Marines were landing
at Danang

806
00:53:00,500 --> 00:53:04,666
on the east coast of South
Vietnam, some 100 miles south

807
00:53:04,766 --> 00:53:06,766
of the demilitarized zone

808
00:53:06,866 --> 00:53:09,900
that divided the North
from the South.

809
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:13,533
They were prepared to fight
their way ashore.

810
00:53:13,633 --> 00:53:15,600
They did not need to.

811
00:53:17,300 --> 00:53:18,433
What struck me

812
00:53:18,533 --> 00:53:23,600
was how beautiful
Vietnam was to look at.

813
00:53:25,566 --> 00:53:28,600
There were just
these endless acres

814
00:53:28,700 --> 00:53:31,000
of these jade-green
rice paddies.

815
00:53:31,100 --> 00:53:35,166
And these lovely villages
inside these groves

816
00:53:35,266 --> 00:53:37,833
of bamboo and palm trees.

817
00:53:37,933 --> 00:53:43,033
And way off in the distance
these bluish jungled mountains,

818
00:53:43,133 --> 00:53:46,200
and they looked like Shangri-La.

819
00:53:46,300 --> 00:53:50,400
And I remember seeing this line
of Vietnamese women,

820
00:53:50,500 --> 00:53:52,300
or schoolgirls I think
they were.

821
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:55,500
They actually looked
like angels come to earth

822
00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:56,900
or something like that.

823
00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:02,333
So it was really quite striking
but a little unsettling

824
00:54:02,433 --> 00:54:03,500
because...

825
00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:05,133
so how can a place like this—

826
00:54:05,233 --> 00:54:08,633
so beautiful and so enchanting—
be at war?

827
00:54:10,033 --> 00:54:12,233
My father was very happy.

828
00:54:12,333 --> 00:54:15,300
We're such a small
and poor country

829
00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:19,866
and the Americans have decided
to come in to save us

830
00:54:19,966 --> 00:54:23,500
not only with their money,
their resources,

831
00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:26,466
but even with their own lives.

832
00:54:26,566 --> 00:54:28,333
We were very grateful.

833
00:54:28,433 --> 00:54:29,733
We thought the...

834
00:54:29,833 --> 00:54:32,733
sure enough with this power,
the Americans are going to win.

835
00:54:32,833 --> 00:54:36,766
Seeing foreign troops marching
past his village,

836
00:54:36,866 --> 00:54:42,433
an old man emerged from his home
shouting, "Vivent les Français!"

837
00:54:42,533 --> 00:54:45,566
He thought the French
had returned.

838
00:54:46,933 --> 00:54:48,333
"The problem around here,"

839
00:54:48,433 --> 00:54:52,766
a Marine captain leading
a patrol told a reporter,

840
00:54:52,866 --> 00:54:55,700
"is who the hell is who?"

841
00:54:55,800 --> 00:54:59,666
As a voting member
of Saigon Mission Council,

842
00:54:59,766 --> 00:55:04,233
I was opposed to the entry of
American ground combat forces.

843
00:55:06,300 --> 00:55:10,566
I felt if the Vietnamese
had to beat them off

844
00:55:10,666 --> 00:55:13,866
with a bloody stump,
they had to do it themselves.

845
00:55:13,966 --> 00:55:18,033
We had to do everything
we humanly could to help them,

846
00:55:18,133 --> 00:55:20,833
but we could not
win it for them.

847
00:55:22,466 --> 00:55:26,466
So, I think we crossed
the River Styx at that point.

848
00:55:53,633 --> 00:55:56,333
The first protest I went to
against the war in Vietnam

849
00:55:56,433 --> 00:56:00,566
was a protest
at a Dow Chemical facility.

850
00:56:03,600 --> 00:56:06,200
Dow was manufacturing napalm.

851
00:56:06,300 --> 00:56:09,300
They were dropping napalm
on villages in Vietnam.

852
00:56:09,400 --> 00:56:11,933
It was a very disappointing
experience

853
00:56:12,033 --> 00:56:15,100
because only 40 people came.

854
00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:17,800
And we seemed very out of place

855
00:56:17,900 --> 00:56:20,966
and very ineffectual, impotent,

856
00:56:21,066 --> 00:56:25,133
standing outside
with 40 people.

857
00:56:25,233 --> 00:56:29,800
Most Americans understood
little about Indochina,

858
00:56:29,900 --> 00:56:33,533
rarely knew anyone actually
involved in the fighting,

859
00:56:33,633 --> 00:56:36,933
saw no reason to question
the government's assertion

860
00:56:37,033 --> 00:56:39,766
that the United States had
vital interests

861
00:56:39,866 --> 00:56:42,433
8,000 miles from home.

862
00:56:44,133 --> 00:56:47,166
Still, there was a small
but growing number of people

863
00:56:47,266 --> 00:56:51,133
who had begun to oppose the war
for any number of reasons—

864
00:56:51,233 --> 00:56:55,666
because they thought it
unjust or immoral,

865
00:56:55,766 --> 00:56:58,500
believed it was unconstitutional

866
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:02,233
or simply not
in the national interest.

867
00:57:05,766 --> 00:57:08,633
Two weeks after
the Marines landed at Danang,

868
00:57:08,733 --> 00:57:12,500
members of the University
of Michigan faculty organized

869
00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:15,466
a night-long discussion
between professors

870
00:57:15,566 --> 00:57:21,000
and some 3,000 students about
the escalation of the war.

871
00:57:21,100 --> 00:57:22,766
The demonstration was called
a teach-in

872
00:57:22,866 --> 00:57:24,600
because the idea originated

873
00:57:24,700 --> 00:57:26,400
with a group of university
professors.

874
00:57:26,500 --> 00:57:29,766
What do you hope to accomplish?

875
00:57:29,866 --> 00:57:32,433
DR.
I'd like to open up
communication between people

876
00:57:32,533 --> 00:57:34,700
and the government because
I believe

877
00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:36,700
that they are not telling us
what is going on,

878
00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:39,166
and the people have the right
to know, and we have the right

879
00:57:39,266 --> 00:57:41,000
to tell the government
what we think.

880
00:57:41,100 --> 00:57:46,000
Soon, there were teach-ins on
most major university campuses.

881
00:57:46,100 --> 00:57:49,266
There is no morally
wonderful way out.

882
00:57:49,366 --> 00:57:54,300
NYU in Manhattan, the University
of Wisconsin in Madison,

883
00:57:54,400 --> 00:57:59,133
the University of
California in Berkeley.

884
00:57:59,233 --> 00:58:02,366
The teach-ins were really
raucous affairs.

885
00:58:02,466 --> 00:58:05,000
A lot of contention.

886
00:58:05,100 --> 00:58:06,433
We want to discuss

887
00:58:06,533 --> 00:58:09,333
is what's wrong
with the Vietnam War, and...

888
00:58:09,433 --> 00:58:11,266
♪ And so many others

889
00:58:13,066 --> 00:58:14,466
Do you endorse

890
00:58:14,566 --> 00:58:16,466
the administration's policy
in South Vietnam?

891
00:58:16,566 --> 00:58:18,166
Whole-heartedly.

892
00:58:18,266 --> 00:58:19,633
There were plenty of times

893
00:58:19,733 --> 00:58:21,633
when people who were supportive
of the war

894
00:58:21,733 --> 00:58:23,033
came to these teach-ins

895
00:58:23,133 --> 00:58:26,166
to try to give an alternative
anticommunist point of view.

896
00:58:26,266 --> 00:58:28,466
They were often shouted down.

897
00:58:30,533 --> 00:58:34,400
The bombing of the North
and the Marines' arrival

898
00:58:34,500 --> 00:58:38,500
also drew protestors
to Washington that spring.

899
00:58:38,600 --> 00:58:40,233
The demonstration was organized

900
00:58:40,333 --> 00:58:45,066
by the Students for a Democratic
Society— the SDS.

901
00:58:45,166 --> 00:58:49,966
I saw SDS calling for a
demonstration at the White House

902
00:58:50,066 --> 00:58:52,600
in the spring of 1965.

903
00:58:52,700 --> 00:58:55,733
I didn't want to go because
I didn't want to be disappointed

904
00:58:55,833 --> 00:58:57,366
in the same way again
and, you know,

905
00:58:57,466 --> 00:58:59,033
go all the way to Washington

906
00:58:59,133 --> 00:59:00,833
and stand outside the White
House with 40 people.

907
00:59:02,566 --> 00:59:05,533
25,000 people attended
that rally.

908
00:59:07,933 --> 00:59:09,866
And that suddenly told me

909
00:59:09,966 --> 00:59:13,466
and others I was working
with at the time

910
00:59:13,566 --> 00:59:17,266
that it might be possible
to build an antiwar movement.

911
00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:24,700
It was quite astounding to think

912
00:59:24,800 --> 00:59:27,533
that he had that degree
of commitment.

913
00:59:27,633 --> 00:59:29,766
And it made sense

914
00:59:29,866 --> 00:59:35,100
in what we knew of him,
as drastic as it was.

915
00:59:36,700 --> 00:59:39,266
Nothing Mogie Crocker's parents
could say or do

916
00:59:39,366 --> 00:59:41,333
since Mogie had come home

917
00:59:41,433 --> 00:59:43,900
shook his determination
to serve,

918
00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:45,933
and recent developments
in Vietnam

919
00:59:46,033 --> 00:59:48,666
had only strengthened
his resolve.

920
00:59:48,766 --> 00:59:52,900
He wanted to become a
paratrooper and get into combat.

921
00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:55,466
His parents finally,
reluctantly,

922
00:59:55,566 --> 00:59:58,433
agreed to let him go,
and on March 15,

923
00:59:58,533 --> 01:00:02,233
a week after the first
Marines landed at Danang,

924
01:00:02,333 --> 01:00:07,500
Denton Crocker, Jr.
entered the United States Army.

925
01:00:07,600 --> 01:00:10,833
So Denton bounced down the steps
one morning

926
01:00:10,933 --> 01:00:14,133
and was off to Fort Dix.

927
01:00:14,233 --> 01:00:17,833
It was in a way a sort of
relief, actually,

928
01:00:17,933 --> 01:00:20,800
that the conflict
and the anxiety

929
01:00:20,900 --> 01:00:24,200
over whether he would
or would not go was done.

930
01:00:24,300 --> 01:00:25,666
And he was happy.

931
01:00:25,766 --> 01:00:29,200
And we just tried to believe
that this was the right thing

932
01:00:29,300 --> 01:00:31,166
for him to do.

933
01:01:21,433 --> 01:01:24,800
Le Minh Khue was orphaned
as a small girl,

934
01:01:24,900 --> 01:01:27,833
her parents victims
of the brutal land reforms

935
01:01:27,933 --> 01:01:30,600
the communists had imposed.

936
01:01:30,700 --> 01:01:33,200
She was raised by her aunt
and uncle,

937
01:01:33,300 --> 01:01:37,400
who encouraged her to read
American literature.

938
01:01:37,500 --> 01:01:42,233
She was 16 when
Operation Rolling Thunder began.

939
01:02:17,600 --> 01:02:20,166
Khue was assigned to
an organization called

940
01:02:20,266 --> 01:02:23,066
the "Youth Shock Brigades
Against the Americans

941
01:02:23,166 --> 01:02:25,100
for National Salvation,"

942
01:02:25,200 --> 01:02:28,566
and along with thousands
of other young people

943
01:02:28,666 --> 01:02:32,900
was sent south to work keeping
open the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

944
01:03:12,466 --> 01:03:14,366
As Johnson had feared,

945
01:03:14,466 --> 01:03:18,200
it quickly became clear
that the bombing campaign alone

946
01:03:18,300 --> 01:03:19,966
was not working.

947
01:03:20,066 --> 01:03:24,266
Troops and supplies continued
steadily to filter down

948
01:03:24,366 --> 01:03:26,566
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

949
01:03:26,666 --> 01:03:29,400
General Westmoreland
and the Joint Chiefs

950
01:03:29,500 --> 01:03:33,033
called for more men,
tens of thousands of them.

951
01:03:33,133 --> 01:03:36,366
The president was cautious.

952
01:03:36,466 --> 01:03:39,200
He wanted to do "enough,
but not too much," he said.

953
01:03:39,300 --> 01:03:43,200
But he quietly agreed to send
two more Marine battalions

954
01:03:43,300 --> 01:03:48,766
and changed their mission from
base security to active combat.

955
01:03:48,866 --> 01:03:50,133
For the first time,

956
01:03:50,233 --> 01:03:52,666
American troops were being asked

957
01:03:52,766 --> 01:03:55,866
to fight on their own
in Vietnam.

958
01:03:55,966 --> 01:03:59,400
Johnson did not want
that fact revealed

959
01:03:59,500 --> 01:04:01,933
to the American public either.

960
01:04:02,033 --> 01:04:03,766
But the bombing of the North

961
01:04:03,866 --> 01:04:06,333
and rumors of harsher measures
to come

962
01:04:06,433 --> 01:04:09,766
had heightened concern around
the world.

963
01:04:09,866 --> 01:04:12,666
UN Secretary-General U Thant
had proposed

964
01:04:12,766 --> 01:04:15,000
a three-month ceasefire.

965
01:04:15,100 --> 01:04:17,900
Great Britain,
America's closest ally,

966
01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:21,733
publicly offered to reconvene
the Geneva Talks

967
01:04:21,833 --> 01:04:24,766
that had divided Vietnam
in 1954,

968
01:04:24,866 --> 01:04:28,366
with the goal of reuniting it.

969
01:04:28,466 --> 01:04:31,566
The people of South Vietnam
be allowed to guide

970
01:04:31,666 --> 01:04:33,000
their own country...

971
01:04:33,100 --> 01:04:36,366
On April 7,
at Johns Hopkins University,

972
01:04:36,466 --> 01:04:38,666
Johnson sought to persuade
the world

973
01:04:38,766 --> 01:04:41,033
of America's good intentions

974
01:04:41,133 --> 01:04:45,500
and again to calm American
fears of a wider war.

975
01:04:47,100 --> 01:04:50,966
In recent months, attacks on
South Vietnam were stepped up.

976
01:04:51,066 --> 01:04:55,933
Thus, it became necessary for
us to increase our response

977
01:04:56,033 --> 01:04:59,233
and to make attacks by air.

978
01:04:59,333 --> 01:05:02,933
This is not a change of purpose.

979
01:05:03,033 --> 01:05:08,433
It is a change in what we
believe that purpose requires.

980
01:05:08,533 --> 01:05:12,400
Nothing was said about the
new orders sending Marines

981
01:05:12,500 --> 01:05:15,066
directly into combat.

982
01:05:15,166 --> 01:05:19,866
Instead, the president called
for "unconditional discussions"

983
01:05:19,966 --> 01:05:23,300
with Hanoi,
and as an old New Dealer,

984
01:05:23,400 --> 01:05:26,133
proposed a massive
development program

985
01:05:26,233 --> 01:05:28,200
for all of Southeast Asia.

986
01:05:28,300 --> 01:05:30,933
The vast Mekong River can
provide

987
01:05:31,033 --> 01:05:32,600
food and water and power

988
01:05:32,700 --> 01:05:36,200
on a scale to dwarf
even our own TVA.

989
01:05:38,333 --> 01:05:40,466
I was outside of the village.

990
01:05:40,566 --> 01:05:42,833
We're getting some fire
from the village.

991
01:05:42,933 --> 01:05:45,166
I had the little
transistor radio.

992
01:05:45,266 --> 01:05:48,333
And I'm sitting there
listening to LBJ.

993
01:05:48,433 --> 01:05:50,300
will use our power
with restraint

994
01:05:50,400 --> 01:05:52,400
and with all the wisdom...

995
01:05:52,500 --> 01:05:55,933
At the same time we got to lay
some nape on the village.

996
01:05:56,033 --> 01:05:57,833
So I'm calling in the nape

997
01:05:57,933 --> 01:06:01,333
and listening to the president
talk peace.

998
01:06:01,433 --> 01:06:04,466
We will try to keep conflict
from spreading.

999
01:06:04,566 --> 01:06:07,266
It was surreal.

1000
01:06:07,366 --> 01:06:09,400
We have no desire to devastate

1001
01:06:09,500 --> 01:06:13,733
that which the people
of North Vietnam have built

1002
01:06:13,833 --> 01:06:17,000
with toil and sacrifice.

1003
01:06:17,100 --> 01:06:23,133
This war, like most wars,
is filled with terrible irony.

1004
01:06:23,233 --> 01:06:24,933
What do the people
of North Vietnam want?

1005
01:06:29,933 --> 01:06:34,000
Hanoi denounced the president's
offer as a trick.

1006
01:06:34,099 --> 01:06:37,099
Johnson's advisors and
the Joint Chiefs of Staff

1007
01:06:37,200 --> 01:06:41,300
continued to debate how many men
would actually be needed

1008
01:06:41,400 --> 01:06:44,700
and how rapidly
they should be deployed.

1009
01:06:44,800 --> 01:06:49,166
Meanwhile, the president sent
the first Army combat troops

1010
01:06:49,266 --> 01:06:50,466
to the country.

1011
01:06:50,566 --> 01:06:52,766
It was increasingly clear

1012
01:06:52,866 --> 01:06:56,666
that the United States was in it
for the long haul.

1013
01:07:00,533 --> 01:07:07,766
You can't just be a neutral
witness to something like war.

1014
01:07:15,566 --> 01:07:19,500
It crawls down your throat.

1015
01:07:19,599 --> 01:07:24,733
It eats you alive from
the inside and the out.

1016
01:07:29,133 --> 01:07:33,800
It's not something that you can
stand back and be neutral

1017
01:07:33,900 --> 01:07:40,166
and objective and all of those
things we try to be

1018
01:07:40,266 --> 01:07:43,800
as reporters, journalists,
photographers.

1019
01:07:46,400 --> 01:07:49,133
It doesn't work that way.

1020
01:07:51,633 --> 01:07:55,666
defense and they're real
quick... and check it out...

1021
01:07:55,766 --> 01:07:59,466
The growing presence of American
combat troops in Vietnam

1022
01:07:59,566 --> 01:08:03,533
attracted flocks of journalists.

1023
01:08:03,633 --> 01:08:05,733
There was no press censorship,

1024
01:08:05,833 --> 01:08:09,166
as there had been
in World War II.

1025
01:08:09,266 --> 01:08:13,566
Reporters just had to agree
to follow military guidelines

1026
01:08:13,666 --> 01:08:16,000
so as not to compromise
the security

1027
01:08:16,100 --> 01:08:18,366
of ongoing operations.

1028
01:08:18,466 --> 01:08:20,766
It was dangerous work.

1029
01:08:20,866 --> 01:08:25,200
More than 200 journalists
and photographers would die

1030
01:08:25,300 --> 01:08:28,400
covering the fighting
in Southeast Asia.

1031
01:08:28,500 --> 01:08:31,766
Joseph Lee Galloway
was a young UPI reporter

1032
01:08:31,866 --> 01:08:35,166
from Refugio, Texas.

1033
01:08:35,266 --> 01:08:39,000
He stopped in Saigon just long
enough to get his credentials.

1034
01:08:39,100 --> 01:08:42,100
Then he headed for Danang.

1035
01:08:42,200 --> 01:08:45,400
The Marines originally
came ashore there

1036
01:08:45,500 --> 01:08:48,033
to guard the airbase.

1037
01:08:48,133 --> 01:08:54,133
And they quickly figured out
you can't just guard an airbase.

1038
01:08:54,233 --> 01:08:55,966
You've got to spread out

1039
01:08:56,066 --> 01:08:57,333
because they're going
to mortar it,

1040
01:08:57,433 --> 01:08:59,266
they're going to shoot rockets.

1041
01:08:59,366 --> 01:09:03,066
So you've got to reach out
15 or 20 miles.

1042
01:09:03,166 --> 01:09:07,100
That means you've got to run
operations that far out.

1043
01:09:07,200 --> 01:09:08,666
And once you're doing that,

1044
01:09:08,766 --> 01:09:11,066
you're no longer guarding
an airbase...

1045
01:09:12,966 --> 01:09:16,166
you're operating
in hostile territory.

1046
01:09:46,700 --> 01:09:51,000
It wasn't so much the Viet Cong
that were intimidating

1047
01:09:51,100 --> 01:09:54,366
at that point
as it was the terrain.

1048
01:09:54,466 --> 01:09:59,100
Going from Point A to Point B
in the jungle

1049
01:09:59,200 --> 01:10:00,500
was so difficult.

1050
01:10:00,600 --> 01:10:04,933
As it happened to me once,
it took four hours

1051
01:10:05,033 --> 01:10:07,133
to move a half a mile,

1052
01:10:07,233 --> 01:10:10,433
cutting through this bush
with machetes.

1053
01:10:12,700 --> 01:10:18,600
The Viet Cong knew the terrain
far better than the Marines did,

1054
01:10:18,700 --> 01:10:22,400
and ran circles around them.

1055
01:10:34,700 --> 01:10:40,033
Fort Dix, June 10, 1965.

1056
01:10:40,133 --> 01:10:41,700
Dear Mum,

1057
01:10:41,800 --> 01:10:45,700
Basic is now all over and I am
presently waiting for orders.

1058
01:10:45,800 --> 01:10:48,000
Waiting for orders could be
very dull

1059
01:10:48,100 --> 01:10:49,833
but I have found there are
excellent chances

1060
01:10:49,933 --> 01:10:51,666
to do some reading.

1061
01:10:51,766 --> 01:10:53,933
Recently I have read
Wuthering Heights,

1062
01:10:54,033 --> 01:10:58,800
Animal Farm, Seven Pillars of
Wisdom, andLord Jim.

1063
01:10:58,900 --> 01:11:00,600
I hope you are all well.

1064
01:11:00,700 --> 01:11:02,200
Love, Mogie.

1065
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:06,633
Mogie Crocker was allowed
two weeks at home

1066
01:11:06,733 --> 01:11:09,533
before shipping out to Vietnam.

1067
01:11:11,366 --> 01:11:13,133
We were at dinner one evening

1068
01:11:13,233 --> 01:11:16,500
just talking, I guess,
in generalities about the war

1069
01:11:16,600 --> 01:11:18,833
and the general situation.

1070
01:11:18,933 --> 01:11:23,633
And Mogie said, "Of course
if I were a Vietnamese,

1071
01:11:23,733 --> 01:11:26,533
I would be on the
side of the Viet Cong."

1072
01:11:26,633 --> 01:11:30,366
That... I puzzled over that.

1073
01:11:30,466 --> 01:11:33,800
I suppose relating like
to our American Revolution

1074
01:11:33,900 --> 01:11:37,366
that he saw their need
for their own freedom.

1075
01:11:37,466 --> 01:11:39,633
But as an American citizen,

1076
01:11:39,733 --> 01:11:44,533
he saw the larger picture
of trying to prevent communism.

1077
01:11:44,633 --> 01:11:47,366
I remember one night
in particular

1078
01:11:47,466 --> 01:11:49,133
he and I were up late.

1079
01:11:49,233 --> 01:11:54,300
And he suddenly leaned his head
in his hands.

1080
01:11:54,400 --> 01:11:57,533
And he said,
"I don't want to go back."

1081
01:11:58,766 --> 01:12:01,100
I was dumbstruck.

1082
01:12:01,200 --> 01:12:06,800
And said to him, "But this
is what you want to do."

1083
01:12:06,900 --> 01:12:10,333
It had never occurred to me
that he was torn about this,

1084
01:12:10,433 --> 01:12:13,900
that he was afraid
and yet was determined to go.

1085
01:12:24,500 --> 01:12:28,266
In South Vietnam, things
were steadily growing worse.

1086
01:12:32,966 --> 01:12:36,033
In May, the Viet Cong,

1087
01:12:36,133 --> 01:12:39,833
supported now by four regiments
of North Vietnamese regulars—

1088
01:12:39,933 --> 01:12:42,433
approximately 5,000 men—

1089
01:12:42,533 --> 01:12:46,300
were destroying the equivalent
of a South Vietnamese battalion

1090
01:12:46,400 --> 01:12:48,133
every week.

1091
01:12:48,233 --> 01:12:50,066
♪ But don't play with me

1092
01:12:52,400 --> 01:12:57,400
South Vietnam now seemed only
weeks from complete collapse.

1093
01:12:57,500 --> 01:13:01,166
Desperate, General Westmoreland
requested

1094
01:13:01,266 --> 01:13:06,233
tens of thousands of more
American troops right away.

1095
01:13:06,333 --> 01:13:09,066
But neither the
continuing bombing

1096
01:13:09,166 --> 01:13:12,866
nor the growing likelihood of
full-scale American intervention

1097
01:13:12,966 --> 01:13:16,266
seemed to intimidate Hanoi.

1098
01:13:16,366 --> 01:13:19,233
Le Duan, having failed
to win the war

1099
01:13:19,333 --> 01:13:22,033
before the United States sent in
ground troops,

1100
01:13:22,133 --> 01:13:25,266
was now persuaded
the American public,

1101
01:13:25,366 --> 01:13:28,800
like the French public before
them, would eventually weary

1102
01:13:28,900 --> 01:13:34,533
of a costly, bloody war being
waged so far from home.

1103
01:13:34,633 --> 01:13:39,700
By contrast, he said, "The North
will not count the cost."

1104
01:13:39,800 --> 01:13:42,366
Le Duan's confidence
was bolstered

1105
01:13:42,466 --> 01:13:45,033
by the help American
intervention had forced

1106
01:13:45,133 --> 01:13:48,700
the Soviet Union and China
to offer him.

1107
01:13:48,800 --> 01:13:52,966
Moscow agreed to supply vast
amounts of modern weaponry

1108
01:13:53,066 --> 01:13:54,433
and materiel.

1109
01:13:54,533 --> 01:13:59,366
Hanoi would eventually become
the most heavily defended city

1110
01:13:59,466 --> 01:14:00,733
on Earth.

1111
01:14:00,833 --> 01:14:03,966
And China agreed to send
support troops,

1112
01:14:04,066 --> 01:14:07,300
freeing North Vietnamese
soldiers for combat

1113
01:14:07,400 --> 01:14:08,966
in the South.

1114
01:14:09,066 --> 01:14:14,266
320,000 Chinese would eventually
serve behind the lines

1115
01:14:14,366 --> 01:14:17,466
in the North.

1116
01:14:17,566 --> 01:14:19,666
"We will fight,"
Le Duan promised,

1117
01:14:19,766 --> 01:14:23,033
"whatever way the
United States wants."

1118
01:14:24,200 --> 01:14:27,433
In June of 1965,

1119
01:14:27,533 --> 01:14:30,000
Secretary McNamara,
the Secretary of Defense,

1120
01:14:30,100 --> 01:14:31,366
came out to Saigon.

1121
01:14:31,466 --> 01:14:35,000
There were a lot of captains
and majors and lieutenants.

1122
01:14:35,100 --> 01:14:39,066
And every person said
to Mr. McNamara,

1123
01:14:39,166 --> 01:14:41,566
"The situation is so dire

1124
01:14:41,666 --> 01:14:44,366
we must bring in
United States forces."

1125
01:14:44,466 --> 01:14:47,366
So, whatever doubts
we may have had,

1126
01:14:47,466 --> 01:14:49,266
whatever people may say
after the fact,

1127
01:14:49,366 --> 01:14:52,166
I recall distinctly at the time

1128
01:14:52,266 --> 01:14:55,066
telling the Secretary of
Defense that I thought we needed

1129
01:14:55,166 --> 01:14:56,233
to bring troops in there.

1130
01:14:57,533 --> 01:14:58,900
For three weeks,

1131
01:14:59,000 --> 01:15:02,300
the president and his advisors
argued over how to respond

1132
01:15:02,400 --> 01:15:06,000
to Westmoreland's urgent
request for more troops,

1133
01:15:06,100 --> 01:15:10,666
differing mostly over how many
should be sent how fast.

1134
01:15:10,766 --> 01:15:15,266
Undersecretary of State
George Ball made the argument

1135
01:15:15,366 --> 01:15:18,033
against further escalation.

1136
01:15:18,133 --> 01:15:22,100
He told the president
the war could not be won.

1137
01:15:22,200 --> 01:15:25,233
The American people
will grow weary of it.

1138
01:15:25,333 --> 01:15:27,400
Our troops will get bogged down

1139
01:15:27,500 --> 01:15:29,933
"in the jungles and rice
paddies," he warned,

1140
01:15:30,033 --> 01:15:33,600
"while we slowly
blow the country to pieces."

1141
01:15:33,700 --> 01:15:36,066
No one else agreed.

1142
01:15:36,166 --> 01:15:39,266
♪ But don't play with me...

1143
01:15:39,366 --> 01:15:44,833
In the end, Johnson sent
Westmoreland 50,000 men.

1144
01:15:44,933 --> 01:15:50,366
But he pledged another 50,000
by the end of 1965,

1145
01:15:50,466 --> 01:15:53,400
and still more
if they were needed.

1146
01:16:30,166 --> 01:16:31,900
Hold your fire!

1147
01:16:32,000 --> 01:16:33,133
Hold your fire.

1148
01:16:34,333 --> 01:16:36,000
Does the fact

1149
01:16:36,100 --> 01:16:39,033
that you are sending additional
forces to Vietnam

1150
01:16:39,133 --> 01:16:42,066
imply any change in
the existing policy

1151
01:16:42,166 --> 01:16:45,700
of using American forces to
guard American installations

1152
01:16:45,800 --> 01:16:47,966
and to act as an
emergency backup?

1153
01:16:48,066 --> 01:16:51,266
It does not imply any change
in policy whatever.

1154
01:16:51,366 --> 01:16:54,366
It does not imply any change
of objective.

1155
01:16:54,466 --> 01:16:55,566
Uh...

1156
01:16:57,766 --> 01:16:59,666
The month of June
saw soldiers here

1157
01:16:59,766 --> 01:17:00,966
taking what appears to be...

1158
01:17:01,066 --> 01:17:03,600
Most television reports
from Vietnam

1159
01:17:03,700 --> 01:17:07,033
echoed the newsreels Americans
had flocked to see

1160
01:17:07,133 --> 01:17:11,466
during the Second World War—
enthusiastic, unquestioning,

1161
01:17:11,566 --> 01:17:16,466
good guys fighting
and defeating bad guys.

1162
01:17:16,566 --> 01:17:20,933
But at dinnertime
on August 5, 1965,

1163
01:17:21,033 --> 01:17:23,833
Americans saw another side
of the war.

1164
01:17:25,466 --> 01:17:28,066
We're on the outskirts
of the village of Cam Ne

1165
01:17:28,166 --> 01:17:29,933
with elements of the
1st Battalion...

1166
01:17:30,033 --> 01:17:33,500
CBS correspondent Morley Safer
and his crew

1167
01:17:33,600 --> 01:17:36,833
went on patrol with Marines
near Danang.

1168
01:17:36,933 --> 01:17:40,033
Their orders were first
to search a cluster

1169
01:17:40,133 --> 01:17:44,033
of four villages for caches
of arms and rice

1170
01:17:44,133 --> 01:17:48,966
meant for the enemy and then
to destroy them all.

1171
01:17:52,333 --> 01:17:55,366
This is what the war
in Vietnam is all about.

1172
01:17:59,233 --> 01:18:02,666
The old and the very young.

1173
01:18:02,766 --> 01:18:05,533
The Marines have burned

1174
01:18:05,633 --> 01:18:07,533
this old couple's cottage

1175
01:18:07,633 --> 01:18:09,400
because fire was coming
from here.

1176
01:18:09,500 --> 01:18:11,133
And now when you walk
into the village

1177
01:18:11,233 --> 01:18:12,900
you see no young people at all.

1178
01:18:17,633 --> 01:18:20,800
The day's operation burned
down 150 houses,

1179
01:18:20,900 --> 01:18:24,133
wounded three women,
killed one baby,

1180
01:18:24,233 --> 01:18:29,666
wounded one Marine,
and netted these four prisoners.

1181
01:18:29,766 --> 01:18:32,733
Today's operation
is the frustration of Vietnam

1182
01:18:32,833 --> 01:18:34,633
in miniature.

1183
01:18:34,733 --> 01:18:37,066
There is little doubt
that American firepower

1184
01:18:37,166 --> 01:18:39,400
can win a military victory here.

1185
01:18:39,500 --> 01:18:44,266
But to a Vietnamese peasant
whose home is a...

1186
01:18:44,366 --> 01:18:46,600
means a lifetime
of backbreaking labor,

1187
01:18:46,700 --> 01:18:49,500
it will take more than
presidential promises

1188
01:18:49,600 --> 01:18:52,466
to convince him that
we are on his side.

1189
01:18:54,200 --> 01:18:56,066
The next morning,
the president called

1190
01:18:56,166 --> 01:19:00,366
his friend Frank Stanton,
the head of CBS.

1191
01:19:00,466 --> 01:19:03,633
"Hello, Frank,
this is your president.

1192
01:19:03,733 --> 01:19:05,900
Are you trying to fuck me?"

1193
01:19:07,333 --> 01:19:10,700
Safer had defaced the
American flag, Johnson said.

1194
01:19:10,800 --> 01:19:15,166
He was probably an agent of
the Kremlin, had to be fired.

1195
01:19:15,266 --> 01:19:19,433
The Marines claimed Safer had
provided a zippo lighter

1196
01:19:19,533 --> 01:19:23,300
and asked the Marines
to burn the hut for the camera.

1197
01:19:23,400 --> 01:19:25,700
A major at the Danang Marine
press office

1198
01:19:25,800 --> 01:19:29,833
called CBS the "Communist
Broadcasting System."

1199
01:19:30,966 --> 01:19:32,366
But after the operation,

1200
01:19:32,466 --> 01:19:37,733
Safer interviewed some of the
Marines who'd burned Cam Ne.

1201
01:19:37,833 --> 01:19:40,066
Do you ever have any
private thoughts,

1202
01:19:40,166 --> 01:19:42,666
any private regrets about
some of these people

1203
01:19:42,766 --> 01:19:44,066
you are leaving homeless?

1204
01:19:44,166 --> 01:19:45,400
I feel no remorse.

1205
01:19:45,500 --> 01:19:46,600
I don't imagine
anybody else does.

1206
01:19:46,700 --> 01:19:47,900
You can't expect to do your job

1207
01:19:48,000 --> 01:19:49,400
and feel pity
for these people.

1208
01:19:51,500 --> 01:19:53,800
When some viewers registered
their shock,

1209
01:19:53,900 --> 01:19:57,933
Westmoreland admitted,
"We have a genuine problem

1210
01:19:58,033 --> 01:20:01,900
"which will be with us as long
as we are in Vietnam.

1211
01:20:02,000 --> 01:20:07,033
"Commanders must exercise
restraint unnatural to war

1212
01:20:07,133 --> 01:20:11,000
and judgment not often required
of young men."

1213
01:20:17,200 --> 01:20:19,933
You kind of thought at first

1214
01:20:20,033 --> 01:20:22,666
that it was going to be
like the GIs, you know,

1215
01:20:22,766 --> 01:20:25,400
rolling through Paris
after the liberation.

1216
01:20:27,533 --> 01:20:30,300
Well, you know, it sure didn't
work out that way.

1217
01:20:32,433 --> 01:20:34,666
I can remember once going
in this one ville.

1218
01:20:34,766 --> 01:20:38,033
And I remember finding this
entire Vietnamese family

1219
01:20:38,133 --> 01:20:40,900
cowering in a bunker.

1220
01:20:42,200 --> 01:20:44,533
And they were terrified of us.

1221
01:20:48,200 --> 01:20:50,766
And I remember thinking
to myself, I said,

1222
01:20:50,866 --> 01:20:55,033
"Well, I wonder if back
in the colonial days,

1223
01:20:55,133 --> 01:20:58,233
"when the Redcoats barged
into Ipswich, Massachusetts,

1224
01:20:58,333 --> 01:20:59,366
"or wherever,

1225
01:20:59,466 --> 01:21:03,066
"if this is how Americans
must have felt

1226
01:21:03,166 --> 01:21:06,733
looking at these foreign
soldiers coming in here."

1227
01:21:06,833 --> 01:21:08,033
The Viet Cong

1228
01:21:08,133 --> 01:21:13,466
have terrorized you,
and have burned your homes.

1229
01:21:13,566 --> 01:21:16,600
We are here to help you.

1230
01:21:16,700 --> 01:21:20,966
To show how much
we are able to protect you,

1231
01:21:21,066 --> 01:21:26,300
we are going to have
the Air Force

1232
01:21:26,400 --> 01:21:31,566
hit some Viet Cong on the other
side of the valley.

1233
01:21:31,666 --> 01:21:33,533
That will be at 10:30.

1234
01:21:56,500 --> 01:21:58,566
Dear Mum and Dad,

1235
01:21:58,666 --> 01:22:01,733
I am now with the 1st Brigade,
101st Airborne Division

1236
01:22:01,833 --> 01:22:03,633
in Vietnam.

1237
01:22:09,733 --> 01:22:11,566
What is taking place in America?

1238
01:22:11,666 --> 01:22:14,533
We who are in Vietnam find
these protests

1239
01:22:14,633 --> 01:22:16,300
very hard to comprehend,

1240
01:22:16,400 --> 01:22:19,966
and many people here
are quite bitter about them.

1241
01:22:23,533 --> 01:22:25,100
The belief I have
in our present policy

1242
01:22:25,200 --> 01:22:29,066
has been completely confirmed
by what I have seen here.

1243
01:22:29,166 --> 01:22:32,200
My chief worry is that these
pacifist bleatings

1244
01:22:32,300 --> 01:22:35,200
might effect even a small change
in government policy

1245
01:22:35,300 --> 01:22:37,966
at a time when we appear
close to success.

1246
01:22:38,066 --> 01:22:42,666
♪ And the war drags on.

1247
01:22:44,800 --> 01:22:49,033
As Vietnam began to be
more and more chaotic,

1248
01:22:49,133 --> 01:22:53,766
I certainly wondered very much
whether we should be there.

1249
01:22:53,866 --> 01:22:56,266
But I never expressed that
to him.

1250
01:22:56,366 --> 01:22:59,733
That's one of those conflicts
that's just too difficult

1251
01:22:59,833 --> 01:23:02,500
to bring up, or at least
it was for me.

1252
01:23:19,600 --> 01:23:21,533
We were all excited
about the arrival

1253
01:23:21,633 --> 01:23:26,266
of the 1st Cavalry Division,
an experimental unit.

1254
01:23:26,366 --> 01:23:30,566
They've been trained in
air-mobile warfare

1255
01:23:30,666 --> 01:23:37,266
using these helicopters to
the absolute maximum benefit.

1256
01:23:37,366 --> 01:23:43,333
They're moving their artillery
by helicopter, jumping it,

1257
01:23:43,433 --> 01:23:48,333
leapfrogging troops, chasing
the enemy, driving him crazy.

1258
01:23:50,633 --> 01:23:52,633
This is something new,

1259
01:23:52,733 --> 01:23:56,400
and it's going to change
the way we do war.

1260
01:23:59,266 --> 01:24:01,833
In September of 1965,

1261
01:24:01,933 --> 01:24:04,533
the newly created
1st Cavalry Division—

1262
01:24:04,633 --> 01:24:13,000
16,000 men, 1,600 vehicles,
435 helicopters—

1263
01:24:13,100 --> 01:24:17,933
had begun arriving at An Khe,
a massive base carved out

1264
01:24:18,033 --> 01:24:20,900
of the grasslands at the edge
of the Central Highlands.

1265
01:24:22,433 --> 01:24:25,766
Its heliport would come to be
called the "Golf Course."

1266
01:24:29,433 --> 01:24:32,966
As the 1st Cavalry got used
to its new surroundings,

1267
01:24:33,066 --> 01:24:36,833
thousands of North Vietnamese
regulars were slipping south

1268
01:24:36,933 --> 01:24:40,300
into the Highlands
along the Ho Chi Minh Trail,

1269
01:24:40,400 --> 01:24:43,800
joining Viet Cong units
already in place.

1270
01:24:43,900 --> 01:24:47,233
They established their own
base on and around

1271
01:24:47,333 --> 01:24:50,600
a jumble of thickly
forested mountains and ravines

1272
01:24:50,700 --> 01:24:53,433
south of the Ia Drang River.

1273
01:24:53,533 --> 01:24:56,100
On the evening of October 19,

1274
01:24:56,200 --> 01:24:59,366
communist commandos slipped
to within 40 yards

1275
01:24:59,466 --> 01:25:03,033
of the perimeter wire of
the U.S. Special Forces outpost

1276
01:25:03,133 --> 01:25:04,500
at Plei Me,

1277
01:25:04,600 --> 01:25:09,233
which was defended by a 12-man
team of U.S. Green Berets,

1278
01:25:09,333 --> 01:25:15,200
14 ARVN: and some 400
mountain tribesmen.

1279
01:25:21,266 --> 01:25:23,966
Nine of the 12 Green Berets
were hit.

1280
01:25:24,066 --> 01:25:26,800
They managed to hold out
for two days

1281
01:25:26,900 --> 01:25:33,300
before 15 more Green Berets and
160 South Vietnamese Rangers

1282
01:25:33,400 --> 01:25:37,966
were helicoptered in, commanded
by Major Charles Beckwith,

1283
01:25:38,066 --> 01:25:42,066
known to his fellow soldiers
as Chargin' Charlie.

1284
01:25:43,166 --> 01:25:44,500
The next day,

1285
01:25:44,600 --> 01:25:47,166
Joe Galloway managed to talk
a helicopter pilot

1286
01:25:47,266 --> 01:25:50,666
into flying him
into the besieged camp.

1287
01:25:50,766 --> 01:25:55,566
That's where I met
Major Charles Beckwith.

1288
01:25:55,666 --> 01:25:59,033
He said, "I need everything
in the world.

1289
01:25:59,133 --> 01:26:03,066
"And what has the Army
in its wisdom sent me

1290
01:26:03,166 --> 01:26:06,266
but a godforsaken reporter?"

1291
01:26:06,366 --> 01:26:09,400
He drug me over and showed me

1292
01:26:09,500 --> 01:26:13,266
a 30-caliber air-cooled
machine gun.

1293
01:26:13,366 --> 01:26:15,966
He showed me how to load it,
how to clear a jam.

1294
01:26:16,066 --> 01:26:20,066
"You can shoot the little brown
men outside the wire,"

1295
01:26:20,166 --> 01:26:22,066
Beckwith told Galloway.

1296
01:26:22,166 --> 01:26:24,100
"You may not shoot
the little brown men

1297
01:26:24,200 --> 01:26:27,800
inside the wire; they are mine."

1298
01:26:27,900 --> 01:26:29,700
And I'm sitting there thinking,

1299
01:26:29,800 --> 01:26:32,633
"Ah, I'm a
civilian noncombatant."

1300
01:26:32,733 --> 01:26:36,000
I tried that line on Beckwith
and he said,

1301
01:26:36,100 --> 01:26:38,933
"Ain't no such thing in these
mountains, son."

1302
01:26:39,033 --> 01:26:43,133
For nearly a week, the North
Vietnamese launched assault

1303
01:26:43,233 --> 01:26:45,866
after assault on Plei Me.

1304
01:26:45,966 --> 01:26:50,066
It was only after American bombs
and napalm

1305
01:26:50,166 --> 01:26:53,266
turned the surrounding terrain
into a moonscape

1306
01:26:53,366 --> 01:26:56,433
that the enemy withdrew.

1307
01:26:56,533 --> 01:27:00,500
What kind of fighters are the
Viet Cong that you met here?

1308
01:27:00,600 --> 01:27:06,333
I would give anything to have
200 of them under my command.

1309
01:27:06,433 --> 01:27:08,333
They're the finest soldiers
I've ever seen.

1310
01:27:08,433 --> 01:27:09,633
The Viet Cong.

1311
01:27:09,733 --> 01:27:11,033
That's right.

1312
01:27:11,133 --> 01:27:12,800
They're dedicated,
and they're good soldiers.

1313
01:27:12,900 --> 01:27:14,333
They're the best
I've ever seen.

1314
01:27:17,300 --> 01:27:20,300
Despite the losses his men
had suffered at Plei Me,

1315
01:27:20,400 --> 01:27:23,733
the North Vietnamese commander,
General Chu Huy Man,

1316
01:27:23,833 --> 01:27:25,733
was eager for another
confrontation

1317
01:27:25,833 --> 01:27:27,600
with the Americans.

1318
01:27:27,700 --> 01:27:31,166
He was determined to
learn how to fight them.

1319
01:27:31,266 --> 01:27:34,566
Reinforcements streaming down
the Ho Chi Minh Trail

1320
01:27:34,666 --> 01:27:36,766
to the Ia Drang Valley included

1321
01:27:36,866 --> 01:27:41,000
a newly minted second
lieutenant, Lo Khac Tam,

1322
01:27:41,100 --> 01:27:44,266
who had volunteered to fight
in the South.

1323
01:28:05,800 --> 01:28:08,666
On the morning
of November 14, 1965,

1324
01:28:08,766 --> 01:28:12,900
1st Cavalry helicopters
belonging to the 1st Battalion

1325
01:28:13,000 --> 01:28:15,100
of the 7th Regiment—

1326
01:28:15,200 --> 01:28:18,000
George Armstrong Custer's
old outfit—

1327
01:28:18,100 --> 01:28:21,733
flew west along the Ia Drang
toward the Chu Pong Massif,

1328
01:28:21,833 --> 01:28:23,733
looking for the enemy.

1329
01:28:25,900 --> 01:28:29,166
Their commander, Kentucky-born
Korean-War veteran

1330
01:28:29,266 --> 01:28:31,366
Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore,

1331
01:28:31,466 --> 01:28:34,100
had been told there was
a large enemy base camp

1332
01:28:34,200 --> 01:28:36,000
somewhere on its slopes.

1333
01:28:36,100 --> 01:28:39,833
His orders were to take his
understrength outfit—

1334
01:28:39,933 --> 01:28:46,433
29 officers and just 411 men—
find the enemy and kill him.

1335
01:28:46,533 --> 01:28:50,500
There were two clearings large
enough for Moore to bring in

1336
01:28:50,600 --> 01:28:52,500
eight choppers at once.

1337
01:28:52,600 --> 01:28:57,533
He chose the one closest to the
mountain— Landing Zone X-Ray.

1338
01:29:01,100 --> 01:29:04,500
Moore made a point of leading
from the front.

1339
01:29:04,600 --> 01:29:07,300
He was the first man
off the first chopper.

1340
01:29:11,833 --> 01:29:16,233
He sent four six-man squads
100 yards in every direction.

1341
01:29:16,333 --> 01:29:19,100
The Ia Drang Valley
was so beautiful,

1342
01:29:19,200 --> 01:29:21,233
one soldier remembered,

1343
01:29:21,333 --> 01:29:24,400
it reminded him of
a national park back home.

1344
01:29:24,500 --> 01:29:28,733
Within minutes, Moore's men
captured a deserter.

1345
01:29:28,833 --> 01:29:30,266
Terrified and trembling,

1346
01:29:30,366 --> 01:29:33,166
he said there were three
battalions of soldiers

1347
01:29:33,266 --> 01:29:36,800
on the mountain— 1,600 men.

1348
01:29:36,900 --> 01:29:39,700
They wanted very much
to kill Americans, he said,

1349
01:29:39,800 --> 01:29:43,466
but so far had been
unable to find any.

1350
01:29:43,566 --> 01:29:46,500
Moore quickly set up
a command post

1351
01:29:46,600 --> 01:29:50,866
behind one of the huge termite
mounds that dotted the clearing.

1352
01:29:50,966 --> 01:29:53,133
It would take until
mid-afternoon

1353
01:29:53,233 --> 01:29:56,666
for all of his
men to be ferried in.

1354
01:29:57,833 --> 01:29:59,733
He had no time to waste.

1355
01:29:59,833 --> 01:30:02,266
"We needed to get off
the landing zone

1356
01:30:02,366 --> 01:30:06,466
and get at them before they
could hit us," Moore remembered.

1357
01:30:06,566 --> 01:30:10,533
He sent two companies up the
slope toward the hidden enemy.

1358
01:30:10,633 --> 01:30:14,333
Most of the North Vietnamese,
like the Americans,

1359
01:30:14,433 --> 01:30:16,066
were new to combat.

1360
01:30:17,533 --> 01:30:19,800
They were ordered
to fix bayonets.

1361
01:30:34,500 --> 01:30:37,300
Colonel Moore had no way
of knowing

1362
01:30:37,400 --> 01:30:40,800
that instead of 1,600
enemy soldiers on the mountain,

1363
01:30:40,900 --> 01:30:46,566
there were 3,000—
seven times his strength.

1364
01:31:00,833 --> 01:31:03,500
Within minutes,
the Americans found themselves

1365
01:31:03,600 --> 01:31:08,033
under attack from hundreds
of North Vietnamese soldiers.

1366
01:31:08,133 --> 01:31:11,633
In the fighting, an overeager
second lieutenant

1367
01:31:11,733 --> 01:31:14,766
led his platoon of 28 men
too far away

1368
01:31:14,866 --> 01:31:18,266
from the rest of his company
and was surrounded.

1369
01:31:20,866 --> 01:31:22,466
The lieutenant was killed.

1370
01:31:22,566 --> 01:31:26,733
The sergeant who took his place
was shot through the head.

1371
01:31:26,833 --> 01:31:31,366
By late afternoon, only seven
of the trapped platoon's men

1372
01:31:31,466 --> 01:31:34,766
were still capable
of firing back.

1373
01:31:43,400 --> 01:31:48,033
Moore was now engaged in
three simultaneous struggles—

1374
01:31:48,133 --> 01:31:52,133
to defend the landing zone,
attack the North Vietnamese,

1375
01:31:52,233 --> 01:31:56,100
and find a way to rescue
his trapped patrol.

1376
01:31:59,033 --> 01:32:03,166
That night, Joe Galloway again
managed to talk his way

1377
01:32:03,266 --> 01:32:06,000
onto a chopper taking ammunition
and water

1378
01:32:06,100 --> 01:32:07,900
to the besieged Americans.

1379
01:32:08,000 --> 01:32:11,133
As the helicopter approached
the battlefield,

1380
01:32:11,233 --> 01:32:13,766
Galloway was sitting
on a crate of grenades,

1381
01:32:13,866 --> 01:32:17,133
peering out into the darkness.

1382
01:32:17,233 --> 01:32:22,200
And I could see these little
pin pricks of light

1383
01:32:22,300 --> 01:32:24,866
coming down the mountain.

1384
01:32:24,966 --> 01:32:29,766
This was the enemy approaching
for the next day's attacks.

1385
01:32:31,366 --> 01:32:34,133
We flew in there.

1386
01:32:34,233 --> 01:32:38,400
As they pulled on out,
it was dead dark.

1387
01:32:38,500 --> 01:32:41,666
And we're lying there waiting
for someone to come tell us

1388
01:32:41,766 --> 01:32:43,033
what to do.

1389
01:32:46,166 --> 01:32:51,066
And the next morning, all of
a sudden the bottom fell out.

1390
01:32:55,400 --> 01:32:59,433
There was an explosion of fire.

1391
01:33:00,866 --> 01:33:05,366
The noise is horrendous,
unimaginable.

1392
01:33:17,666 --> 01:33:20,433
And in the middle
of all of this, you know,

1393
01:33:20,533 --> 01:33:23,300
I-I just flattened out
on the ground

1394
01:33:23,400 --> 01:33:27,566
because all that was being fired
seemed to be about two,

1395
01:33:27,666 --> 01:33:30,966
two-and-a-half feet
off the ground.

1396
01:33:37,966 --> 01:33:40,733
Hundreds of enemy soldiers
hurled themselves

1397
01:33:40,833 --> 01:33:42,133
at the Americans.

1398
01:33:43,633 --> 01:33:47,400
They wore webbed helmets
camouflaged with grass,

1399
01:33:47,500 --> 01:33:52,333
and as they came,
blowing whistles, screaming,

1400
01:33:52,433 --> 01:33:56,633
they looked like "little trees,"
one American remembered.

1401
01:33:56,733 --> 01:33:59,433
They were trying to overrun us.

1402
01:33:59,533 --> 01:34:01,766
And they came close.

1403
01:34:01,866 --> 01:34:04,066
They came close.

1404
01:34:20,033 --> 01:34:23,400
But we had two things
going for us.

1405
01:34:24,733 --> 01:34:28,133
We had a great commander
and great soldiers.

1406
01:34:28,233 --> 01:34:34,733
And we had air and artillery
support out the yin-yang.

1407
01:34:34,833 --> 01:34:37,500
We had it, and they didn't.

1408
01:34:41,466 --> 01:34:46,200
But using that air and artillery
support could be dangerous.

1409
01:34:46,300 --> 01:34:50,233
Each of Moore's units carefully
marked its position with smoke

1410
01:34:50,333 --> 01:34:53,233
to keep from being mistaken
for the enemy

1411
01:34:53,333 --> 01:34:55,600
by American airmen overhead.

1412
01:35:07,133 --> 01:35:11,133
Some 18,000 artillery shells
would be called in

1413
01:35:11,233 --> 01:35:12,500
over the course of the battle,

1414
01:35:12,600 --> 01:35:17,566
some of them landing just
25 yards from Moore's own men.

1415
01:35:17,666 --> 01:35:23,133
Helicopter gunships fired 3,000
rockets into the enemy.

1416
01:35:23,233 --> 01:35:25,666
The forward air controller

1417
01:35:25,766 --> 01:35:29,300
called for every available
aircraft in South Vietnam

1418
01:35:29,400 --> 01:35:30,866
to come and help.

1419
01:35:30,966 --> 01:35:36,433
Warplanes, including B-52
long-range strategic bombers,

1420
01:35:36,533 --> 01:35:40,666
were stacked at 1,000-foot
intervals above the battlefield,

1421
01:35:40,766 --> 01:35:43,900
from 7,000 to 35,000 feet,

1422
01:35:44,000 --> 01:35:48,433
impatiently awaiting targets
to strafe or bomb or burn.

1423
01:35:50,766 --> 01:35:55,433
"By God," Moore said, "they sent
us over here to kill communists

1424
01:35:55,533 --> 01:35:57,033
and that's what we're doing."

1425
01:36:03,200 --> 01:36:04,900
I looked up...

1426
01:36:06,766 --> 01:36:14,066
and there were two jets aiming
directly at our command post.

1427
01:36:14,166 --> 01:36:20,300
He's dropped two cans of napalm
and it's coming toward us,

1428
01:36:20,400 --> 01:36:24,333
loblolly, end over end.

1429
01:36:24,433 --> 01:36:29,133
And these kids, two or three
of 'em, plus a sergeant,

1430
01:36:29,233 --> 01:36:33,466
had dug a hole or two
over on the edge.

1431
01:36:33,566 --> 01:36:38,500
And I looked as the thing
exploded...

1432
01:36:42,633 --> 01:36:47,200
And two of them
were dancing in that fire.

1433
01:36:47,300 --> 01:36:51,133
And there's a rush, a roar,

1434
01:36:51,233 --> 01:36:55,300
from the air that's
being consumed

1435
01:36:55,400 --> 01:37:01,333
and drawn in as this-this
hell come to earth

1436
01:37:01,433 --> 01:37:03,100
is burning there.

1437
01:37:03,200 --> 01:37:08,366
And as that dies back a little,
then you can hear the screams.

1438
01:37:10,566 --> 01:37:15,500
And someone yells,
"Get this man's feet."

1439
01:37:15,600 --> 01:37:22,466
And I reach down
and the boots crumble,

1440
01:37:22,566 --> 01:37:26,666
and the flesh is cooked off
of his ankles.

1441
01:37:26,766 --> 01:37:30,866
And I feel those bones
in the palms of my hands.

1442
01:37:30,966 --> 01:37:33,666
I can feel it now.

1443
01:37:35,066 --> 01:37:37,666
He died two days later.

1444
01:37:37,766 --> 01:37:42,100
A kid named Jim Nakayama
out of Rigby, Idaho.

1445
01:37:56,733 --> 01:37:59,300
By 10:00 that morning,

1446
01:37:59,400 --> 01:38:03,066
American airpower had beaten
back the enemy assault.

1447
01:38:04,433 --> 01:38:06,566
The survivors
from the trapped platoon

1448
01:38:06,666 --> 01:38:08,700
were rescued that afternoon.

1449
01:38:08,800 --> 01:38:12,566
They had been pinned to the
ground and under fire

1450
01:38:12,666 --> 01:38:15,433
for so long
that they had to be coaxed

1451
01:38:15,533 --> 01:38:17,766
into getting to their feet
again.

1452
01:38:24,400 --> 01:38:26,433
On the morning of the next day,

1453
01:38:26,533 --> 01:38:29,900
enemy soldiers hurled themselves
against the same sector

1454
01:38:30,000 --> 01:38:33,100
of Moore's line four more times

1455
01:38:33,200 --> 01:38:36,600
and were obliterated by
artillery and machine gun fire.

1456
01:38:38,800 --> 01:38:41,566
The surviving North Vietnamese
and Viet Cong

1457
01:38:41,666 --> 01:38:43,666
withdrew into the forest,

1458
01:38:43,766 --> 01:38:46,633
leaving behind a ghastly ring
of their dead

1459
01:38:46,733 --> 01:38:48,533
surrounding the landing zone—

1460
01:38:48,633 --> 01:38:54,966
634 corpses, shot, blasted,
blackened by fire.

1461
01:39:20,666 --> 01:39:23,566
After three days
and two nights of combat,

1462
01:39:23,666 --> 01:39:26,833
helicopters began lifting out
the American survivors

1463
01:39:26,933 --> 01:39:29,800
and gathering up the dead.

1464
01:39:29,900 --> 01:39:31,566
When you look at them,

1465
01:39:31,666 --> 01:39:34,800
it doesn't even resemble
a human body.

1466
01:39:34,900 --> 01:39:38,066
It just, it looks just like
a mannequin.

1467
01:39:38,166 --> 01:39:41,033
You look at them and say,
"That couldn't happen to me."

1468
01:39:43,866 --> 01:39:46,866
I saw them fight at Ia Drang.

1469
01:39:46,966 --> 01:39:49,966
It always galls me
when I read or hear

1470
01:39:50,066 --> 01:39:52,166
about the World War II
generation

1471
01:39:52,266 --> 01:39:54,066
as the greatest generation.

1472
01:39:54,166 --> 01:39:57,100
These kids were just as gallant
and as courageous

1473
01:39:57,200 --> 01:39:59,400
as anybody who fought
in World War II.

1474
01:40:01,000 --> 01:40:03,800
Seventy-nine of Hal Moore's men
lost their lives

1475
01:40:03,900 --> 01:40:07,333
at Landing Zone X-Ray
in the Ia Drang Valley

1476
01:40:07,433 --> 01:40:12,733
and another 121 were wounded.

1477
01:40:12,833 --> 01:40:16,200
Please convey
to the American people

1478
01:40:16,300 --> 01:40:20,433
what a tremendous fighting man
we have here.

1479
01:40:20,533 --> 01:40:25,900
He's courageous,
he's aggressive, and he's kind.

1480
01:40:26,000 --> 01:40:29,766
And he'll go where
you tell him to go.

1481
01:40:29,866 --> 01:40:32,366
And he's got self-discipline.

1482
01:40:32,466 --> 01:40:35,733
And he's got good unit
discipline.

1483
01:40:35,833 --> 01:40:38,033
He's just
an outstanding man.

1484
01:40:38,133 --> 01:40:39,633
And...

1485
01:40:41,133 --> 01:40:44,100
Having commanded this battalion
for 18 months...

1486
01:40:46,800 --> 01:40:48,666
You must excuse my emotion here,

1487
01:40:48,766 --> 01:40:54,300
but when I see some of these men
go out the way they have...

1488
01:41:02,033 --> 01:41:04,066
I haven't...

1489
01:41:04,166 --> 01:41:06,466
I can't tell you how highly
I feel for them.

1490
01:41:06,566 --> 01:41:09,200
They're tremendous.

1491
01:41:09,300 --> 01:41:11,566
Hal Moore refused to leave

1492
01:41:11,666 --> 01:41:16,300
until every single man in his
command had been accounted for.

1493
01:41:16,400 --> 01:41:21,500
He had been the first of his men
to step onto Landing Zone X-Ray,

1494
01:41:21,600 --> 01:41:24,866
and he made sure he was
the last to leave it.

1495
01:42:01,800 --> 01:42:04,400
The North Vietnamese suffered
terrible losses

1496
01:42:04,500 --> 01:42:05,933
in the Ia Drang Valley

1497
01:42:06,033 --> 01:42:09,700
and many of the survivors
were traumatized.

1498
01:42:09,800 --> 01:42:13,500
"The units were enveloped
in an atmosphere of gloom,"

1499
01:42:13,600 --> 01:42:15,566
a North Vietnamese colonel
remembered.

1500
01:42:15,666 --> 01:42:19,966
Some men would not leave
their rope hammocks.

1501
01:42:20,066 --> 01:42:22,000
Some refused to wash.

1502
01:42:22,100 --> 01:42:27,300
One soldier wrote a poem
expressive of their plight:

1503
01:42:27,400 --> 01:42:30,066
"The crab lies still
on the chopping block

1504
01:42:30,166 --> 01:42:34,200
Never knowing when the knife
will fall."

1505
01:42:39,933 --> 01:42:45,633
In the Ia Drang we killed ten
of them for every one of us.

1506
01:42:47,300 --> 01:42:51,433
That's a ten-to-one kill ratio
is how the military puts that.

1507
01:42:54,833 --> 01:43:01,200
But the enemy, he was fully
prepared to pay that price

1508
01:43:01,300 --> 01:43:05,666
and more for the value
of the lessons he learned.

1509
01:43:21,466 --> 01:43:24,500
Grab 'em by the belt buckle.

1510
01:43:24,600 --> 01:43:27,933
That means you've got to get
so close,

1511
01:43:28,033 --> 01:43:34,566
they can't use the artillery and
the aerial bombardments on you

1512
01:43:34,666 --> 01:43:37,100
for fear of killing their own.

1513
01:43:37,200 --> 01:43:42,033
Get in so close
that it's man-on-man.

1514
01:43:42,133 --> 01:43:45,200
And then everything is even.

1515
01:43:46,433 --> 01:43:49,866
The Vietnamese suffered hundreds
of dead

1516
01:43:49,966 --> 01:43:52,800
attacking Hal Moore's battalion
at LZ X-Ray.

1517
01:43:52,900 --> 01:43:58,633
But then they ambushed another
battalion a couple of days later

1518
01:43:58,733 --> 01:44:01,900
and wiped it out.

1519
01:44:02,000 --> 01:44:04,566
In the fighting near
Landing Zone Albany,

1520
01:44:04,666 --> 01:44:08,566
the enemy had gotten too close
for artillery to be called in.

1521
01:44:10,000 --> 01:44:16,300
Out of some 425 Americans
involved, 155 were killed.

1522
01:44:16,400 --> 01:44:21,000
124 more were wounded.

1523
01:44:21,100 --> 01:44:25,933
Both sides claimed victory
in the Ia Drang Valley.

1524
01:44:26,033 --> 01:44:28,766
The Americans talked up
the number of enemy dead

1525
01:44:28,866 --> 01:44:30,466
at Landing Zone X-Ray.

1526
01:44:30,566 --> 01:44:32,700
The ratio of losses
to your kill...

1527
01:44:34,200 --> 01:44:36,233
The North Vietnamese
took their lessons

1528
01:44:36,333 --> 01:44:38,466
from Landing Zone Albany.

1529
01:44:45,700 --> 01:44:48,000
I don't anticipate

1530
01:44:48,100 --> 01:44:53,500
that this conflict will end
any time soon,

1531
01:44:53,600 --> 01:44:58,166
and we could find that we have
more difficult days ahead.

1532
01:44:58,266 --> 01:45:01,066
Certainly we must be
prepared for this.

1533
01:45:08,800 --> 01:45:13,700
In the fall of my senior year,
November 1965,

1534
01:45:13,800 --> 01:45:17,133
was that huge battle
at the Ia Drang Valley,

1535
01:45:17,233 --> 01:45:20,133
which was the first time
there was actually confirmed

1536
01:45:20,233 --> 01:45:22,633
North Vietnamese regular
soldiers as opposed

1537
01:45:22,733 --> 01:45:24,366
to Viet Cong.

1538
01:45:24,466 --> 01:45:27,366
And of course my way of
interpreting that was,

1539
01:45:27,466 --> 01:45:28,966
"There it is, that's the proof.

1540
01:45:29,066 --> 01:45:30,966
The North Vietnamese
are the aggressors here."

1541
01:45:31,066 --> 01:45:35,466
And that's when I began thinking
in terms of

1542
01:45:35,566 --> 01:45:37,966
maybe I don't want to go
to college right away.

1543
01:45:38,066 --> 01:45:41,266
Maybe I'll join the Marines.

1544
01:45:41,366 --> 01:45:42,433
And it was always the Marines.

1545
01:45:42,533 --> 01:45:44,266
I never...
there was no question.

1546
01:45:44,366 --> 01:45:45,933
The Marine Corps is full
of little guys like me

1547
01:45:46,033 --> 01:45:47,200
with chips on our shoulder.

1548
01:45:51,266 --> 01:45:54,166
The battles in the Ia Drang
Valley may have been declared

1549
01:45:54,266 --> 01:45:58,433
American victories, but
privately, General Westmoreland

1550
01:45:58,533 --> 01:46:01,700
and the Johnson administration
were worried.

1551
01:46:01,800 --> 01:46:05,300
In spite of the Americans'
new airborne mobility,

1552
01:46:05,400 --> 01:46:07,833
the enemy had been able
to choose

1553
01:46:07,933 --> 01:46:10,633
the place and time of battle.

1554
01:46:10,733 --> 01:46:14,300
The intelligence on which
basic decisions had been made

1555
01:46:14,400 --> 01:46:18,733
in Washington
had been uniformly bad.

1556
01:46:18,833 --> 01:46:21,866
There were now believed to be
12 Viet Cong regiments

1557
01:46:21,966 --> 01:46:24,700
in South Vietnam, not just five;

1558
01:46:24,800 --> 01:46:28,166
nine North Vietnamese regiments,
not three.

1559
01:46:29,366 --> 01:46:31,166
Despite months of bombing,

1560
01:46:31,266 --> 01:46:34,000
three times as many North
Vietnamese regulars

1561
01:46:34,100 --> 01:46:37,633
were now slipping south
of the demilitarized zone

1562
01:46:37,733 --> 01:46:40,066
as originally believed.

1563
01:46:40,166 --> 01:46:44,366
Hanoi seemed to be
escalating, too.

1564
01:46:44,466 --> 01:46:48,566
And American casualties
were climbing.

1565
01:46:48,666 --> 01:46:51,833
When Senator Fritz Hollings
visited Saigon

1566
01:46:51,933 --> 01:46:54,366
shortly after
the Ia Drang battles,

1567
01:46:54,466 --> 01:46:58,133
General Westmoreland told him,
"We're killing these people

1568
01:46:58,233 --> 01:47:00,466
at a rate of ten to one."

1569
01:47:00,566 --> 01:47:01,900
Hollings warned him,

1570
01:47:02,000 --> 01:47:05,566
"Westy, the American people
don't care about the ten.

1571
01:47:05,666 --> 01:47:07,733
They care about the one."

1572
01:47:09,633 --> 01:47:12,366
Westmoreland, who had said
he could win the war

1573
01:47:12,466 --> 01:47:16,500
in three years, now sent an
urgent cable to Washington

1574
01:47:16,600 --> 01:47:19,466
asking for 200,000 more troops.

1575
01:47:19,566 --> 01:47:21,566
♪ Yeah, my blood's so mad...

1576
01:47:21,666 --> 01:47:24,233
"The message came
as a shattering blow,"

1577
01:47:24,333 --> 01:47:26,466
Robert McNamara remembered.

1578
01:47:26,566 --> 01:47:31,566
Once again, he offered Johnson
two options:

1579
01:47:31,666 --> 01:47:34,866
try to negotiate a compromise
with Hanoi,

1580
01:47:34,966 --> 01:47:38,566
or accede to Westmoreland's
request for more men,

1581
01:47:38,666 --> 01:47:41,933
though the chances of victory,
the secretary of defense said,

1582
01:47:42,033 --> 01:47:46,133
might be no better
than one in three.

1583
01:47:46,233 --> 01:47:48,866
And then they all sat down

1584
01:47:48,966 --> 01:47:51,833
and voted for option two.

1585
01:47:51,933 --> 01:47:53,866
♪ Over and over and over...

1586
01:47:53,966 --> 01:47:58,033
My bitterness about the
political powers at the time

1587
01:47:58,133 --> 01:48:03,033
was, first of all, the lying.

1588
01:48:03,133 --> 01:48:06,500
I mean, I can understand
a policy error

1589
01:48:06,600 --> 01:48:09,200
that is incredibly,
incredibly painful

1590
01:48:09,300 --> 01:48:11,266
and kills a lot of people
out of a mistake

1591
01:48:11,366 --> 01:48:14,466
if they made that
with noble hearts.

1592
01:48:14,566 --> 01:48:16,933
That was, you know, when
Eisenhower and Kennedy

1593
01:48:17,033 --> 01:48:19,600
were trying to figure
things out.

1594
01:48:19,700 --> 01:48:23,933
And you read that, you know,
McNamara knew by '65—

1595
01:48:24,033 --> 01:48:25,833
it was just three years
before I was there—

1596
01:48:25,933 --> 01:48:27,166
that the war was unwinnable.

1597
01:48:27,266 --> 01:48:29,066
That's what makes me mad.

1598
01:48:29,166 --> 01:48:31,366
Making a mistake,
people can do that.

1599
01:48:31,466 --> 01:48:33,133
But covering up mistakes,

1600
01:48:33,233 --> 01:48:37,400
then you're killing people
for your own ego.

1601
01:48:37,500 --> 01:48:40,666
And that makes me mad.

1602
01:48:42,800 --> 01:48:44,300
Tens of thousands
of American troops

1603
01:48:44,400 --> 01:48:48,200
continued to prepare
to deploy to Vietnam

1604
01:48:48,300 --> 01:48:49,400
from all over the country,

1605
01:48:49,500 --> 01:48:52,933
and General Westmoreland
and his commanders

1606
01:48:53,033 --> 01:48:55,133
drew up plans
for major offensives

1607
01:48:55,233 --> 01:48:58,400
in the new year of 1966.

1608
01:49:02,200 --> 01:49:05,700
Meanwhile, hoping the Soviets
might help bring Hanoi

1609
01:49:05,800 --> 01:49:09,666
to the bargaining table,
McNamara urged the president

1610
01:49:09,766 --> 01:49:14,000
to declare a halt to the bombing
of North Vietnam.

1611
01:49:14,100 --> 01:49:16,633
Over the objections
of the military,

1612
01:49:16,733 --> 01:49:19,400
who worried it would give
the enemy time to rebuild

1613
01:49:19,500 --> 01:49:23,766
its defenses, Johnson agreed
to stop the bombing

1614
01:49:23,866 --> 01:49:26,600
on Christmas Eve.

1615
01:49:26,700 --> 01:49:28,833
If it achieved nothing else,
he said,

1616
01:49:28,933 --> 01:49:31,133
it would show the American
people

1617
01:49:31,233 --> 01:49:34,566
that before he committed more
of their sons to battle,

1618
01:49:34,666 --> 01:49:37,700
"We have gone
the last mile."

1619
01:49:43,066 --> 01:49:48,533
Well, Christmas always meant
a great deal in our family.

1620
01:49:48,633 --> 01:49:53,033
We sent packages to Denton,
of course.

1621
01:49:53,133 --> 01:49:55,200
Then a neighbor mentioned to me

1622
01:49:55,300 --> 01:49:59,733
that she heard a local
television station was offering

1623
01:49:59,833 --> 01:50:03,633
free tapes to be made to send
to a soldier overseas.

1624
01:50:03,733 --> 01:50:08,400
We dressed up for the cameras.

1625
01:50:08,500 --> 01:50:11,233
The idea was that we would each
just say something

1626
01:50:11,333 --> 01:50:14,566
about what we were doing
and wish him well.

1627
01:50:16,733 --> 01:50:19,233
It was a horrible day for me.

1628
01:50:19,333 --> 01:50:24,266
It made it so real that he was
far away.

1629
01:50:24,366 --> 01:50:27,633
Well, Mogie, here we are.

1630
01:50:27,733 --> 01:50:31,433
It's... let's see
what day is today.

1631
01:50:31,533 --> 01:50:32,733
Here it is, Saturday...

1632
01:50:32,833 --> 01:50:33,800
November 13.

1633
01:50:33,900 --> 01:50:36,000
November 13,

1634
01:50:36,100 --> 01:50:41,166
and station WTEN has given
us a chance to talk to you.

1635
01:50:41,266 --> 01:50:43,700
We all wish you
a Merry Christmas

1636
01:50:43,800 --> 01:50:45,033
to start out with.

1637
01:50:46,466 --> 01:50:48,800
Rand, what do you
got to say to Mogie?

1638
01:50:48,900 --> 01:50:50,166
Merry Christmas.

1639
01:50:50,266 --> 01:50:51,300
Merry Christmas.

1640
01:50:53,200 --> 01:50:54,433
Merry Christmas, darling.

1641
01:50:54,533 --> 01:50:55,800
We sent your packages

1642
01:50:55,900 --> 01:50:57,666
and there's one that's waiting
for you at home.

1643
01:50:57,766 --> 01:50:59,366
It's a record of fife
and drum music

1644
01:50:59,466 --> 01:51:02,066
that we got for you
at Williamsburg.

1645
01:51:02,166 --> 01:51:02,966
Candy?

1646
01:51:04,966 --> 01:51:10,700
My teacher isn't very nice,
and she always is crabby,

1647
01:51:10,800 --> 01:51:13,266
and I don't like school at all.

1648
01:51:13,366 --> 01:51:15,300
Now I'm a brownie.

1649
01:51:15,400 --> 01:51:16,966
Merry Christmas.

1650
01:51:18,466 --> 01:51:19,733
Happy Christmas, Mogie.

1651
01:51:19,833 --> 01:51:21,600
I think I'm getting
new skis for Christmas.

1652
01:51:21,700 --> 01:51:23,733
So when you get home,
we can get together sometime.

1653
01:51:23,833 --> 01:51:27,300
We do all wish you
a very Merry Christmas,

1654
01:51:27,400 --> 01:51:29,600
and we'll be thinking
of you on Christmas Day.

1655
01:51:32,500 --> 01:51:34,200
We miss you, sweetheart.

1656
01:51:36,300 --> 01:51:40,366
♪ Me and my drum.